Impaired parenting may lie on the causal pathway between paternal depression and children's outcomes. We use the first four surveys of the Millennium Cohort Study to investigate the association between paternal depressive symptoms and fathers' parenting (negative, positive and involvement). Findings suggest that postnatal paternal depressive symptoms are associated with fathers' negative parenting. This has implications for the design of intervention programmes for parents with depression and young children.

An elderly woman developed the delusion that she was dead (‘Cotard's delusion’) and that she was in another place (‘reduplicative paramnesia’). Charles Bonnet reported this unique combination of symptoms a century before Cotard's influential description of the nihilistic delusions and of Pick's description of ‘reduplicative paramnesia’.

The function of religion in human society is complex. The part played by religion in psychiatric disorders is even more obscure. Previous literature and theories are divided into two groups: one school believes that intense religiosity is a symptom-complex indicative of psychiatric disorder, while the opposing view is that religious belief in some way acts as a defence mechanism protecting the individual and his psyche.

The present study of 50 Jehovah's Witnesses admitted to the Mental Health Service facilities of Western Australia suggests that members of this section of the community are more likely to be admitted to a psychiatric hospital than the general population. Furthermore, followers of the sect are three times more likely to be diagnosed as suffering from schizophrenia and nearly four times more likely from paranoid schizophrenia than the rest of the population at risk.

These findings suggest that being a member of the Jehovah's Witnesses faith may be a risk factor predisposing to a schizophrenic illness. Further studies would be interesting in investigating whether pre-psychotic people are more likely to join the sect than normal people and what part (if any) membership has in bringing about such a breakdown.

Systematic desensitization is unquestionably the most popular of the behaviour therapies. To circumvent several difficulties specific to this technique we devized a new treatment paradigm—the reciprocal inhibition of anxiety by aversion relief (Solyom and Miller, 1967), from which 31 of 40 phobic patients (80 per cent) benefited (Solyom, Kenny and Ledwidge, 1969). The present paper reports on a systematic comparison of the two treatment techniques in terms of: (1) the rate and degree of improvement; (2) the specificity versus the generality of improvement; (3) prognostic indicators favouring one treatment over the other.

An antiviral effect of lithium has been proposed, but never investigated for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Using electronic health records of 26 554 patients with documented serum lithium levels during the pandemic, we show that the 6-month COVID-19 infection incidence was lower among matched patients with ‘therapeutic’ (0.50–1.00) versus ‘subtherapeutic’ (0.05–0.50) lithium levels (hazard ratio (HR) = 0.82, 95% CI 0.69–0.97, P = 0.017) and among patients with ‘therapeutic’ lithium levels versus matched patients using valproate (HR = 0.79, 95% CI 0.67–0.92, P = 0.0023). Lower rates of infection were observed for both new COVID-19 diagnoses and positive polymerase chain reaction tests, regardless of underlying psychiatric diagnosis and vaccination status.

Monoamine oxidase (MAO) levels in plasma, platelets, lymphocytes and granulocytes have been compared in schizophrenics and controls using three substrates. No significant difference was found between MAO levels in controls and the schizophrenic group as a whole, but platelets and lymphocytes of the latter (tyramine or benzylamine substrate) showed greater variation and in some cases higher values than controls, irrespective of treatment. Schizophrenics who experienced auditory hallucinations had significantly lower MAO levels in lymphocytes and platelets than those who did not.

The foundation of charitable institutions for the care of the mentally ill began towards the end of the eighteenth century as a result of concern amongst the articulate for the disadvantaged in society. It was not long before this same concern was again aroused; this time at the high death rate within many of these asylums. In the case of the York Asylum, which was the subject of a Parliamentary Select Committee in 1815, this was found to be due to poor conditions (Digby, 1983). Recently the Royal College of Psychiatrists has focussed attention on the continuing problem of patients who kill themselves while receiving treatment in hospital (Crammer, 1983). Particular attention was drawn to the reluctance of psychiatrists and those around them to examine the events leading to death; this compares unfavourably with the attitudes of anaesthetists and obstetricians, who have an established procedure for confidential inquiries into unexpected deaths.

This preliminary survey of a group of schizophrenics at Friern Hospital was undertaken in order to find out whether such cases presented any electroencephalographic deviation from normal. In the event of positive results being obtained it was hoped that, in addition to further lines for research being indicated, some light might be thrown on the issues raised by Hoagland, Cameron and Rubin (1), (2), (3), and Lemere (4) regarding electro-encephalograms in treated and untreated psychotics.

The history of mediaeval medicine shows clearly that the decline of a science takes place whenever the tendency to theorize overruns the desire to observe and measure. Psychiatry with its shorter medical history has suffered from this tendency until fairly recent times. Even now, it is possible to estimate the efficiency of a nation's psychiatric progress by comparing the amount of factual research with the emphasis placed on unproven theoretical concepts in clinical practice.

Reductions in emergency psychiatric presentations to hospital occurred during and after the finals of the World Cup football competitions, an effect evident in women as well as men, and more marked among the mentally ill than those who were not. Increases in the numbers of schizophrenic and neurotic men presenting before, and alcoholic men during, the competitions can be attributed to the football. The generalised reductions during and after could reflect an indirect effect upon help-seeking, although actual relapse rates of mental illnesses might be affected. These changes could arise from enhancement of national identity and cohesion.

Four patients with IQs below 50 displayed suicidal behaviour. This refutes the notion that the severely mentally handicapped are unable to form such an intention.

Neurotoxicity is a rare but well recognized unwanted effect of lithium therapy (Moore, 1972; von Hartitzsch et al, 1972; Tyrer and Shopsin, 1980) which tends to be associated with high serum lithium levels. In clinical practice it is normally assumed that once signs of toxicity are detected and treatment stopped, serum levels will return to normal. We report here a patient who developed toxic symptoms while her serum levels were in the therapeutic range but who developed severe neurotoxic sequelae and high serum levels after treatment was stopped.

Patients with anorexia nervosa show a decrease in psychoneurotic symptomatology as measured by the Crown-Crisp Experiential Index (CCEI) as their clinical status improves. Those who remain ill continue to display a moderate degree of varied psychopathology 4 to 8 years after their presentation. Vomiters and those with anxiety on eating with others can be distinguished on the CCEI from those without such features. Lower anxiety, phobia, obsessional and somatic scores at presentation are predictive of good outcome in terms of weight and menstrual function 4 to 8 years later.

Abnormal neuroendocrine responses have been found in depression and eating disorders. It remains unclear whether these reflect an underlying shared biology or epiphenomena. To evaluate this further, we conducted the 1 mg DST and the TSH response to 500 μg i.v. TRH in normal-weight bulimics and controls. Bulimics (n = 18) demonstrated significantly more DST non-suppression (45%) than controls (18%; n = 20). In the bulimic group, non-suppressors were significantly thinner than suppressors, but did not differ from them on any measure of depression. Bulimics (n = 19) and controls (n = 12) responded similarly without blunting on the TSH response to TRH. These data suggest that DST non-suppression may be related to non-specific variables such as weight. Bulimics do not demonstrate TSH blunting as found in some depressed patients. These tests do not support evidence for a biological link between these disorders.

The demonstration of either the association of a genetic marker and primary affective disorder, or linkage between a genetic marker and primary affective disorder would provide incontrovertible evidence for a genetic factor in primary affective disorder. Disease association and linkage are two separate processes. Linkage is said to occur if two genes, each responsible for a separate trait, are on the same chromosome and are close enough together that they assort in a dependent fashion. In any single family the physical proximity of two genes on the same chromosome makes it likely that the characteristics of both genes will be found in a single individual. Association, on the other hand, occurs when two genetically separate traits have a non-random occurrence in a population. Association of a disease with a specific marker may occur fleetingly on the basis of linkage. This kind of association occurs only for a few generations, so that when enough generations have passed and enough crossing over has occurred between chromosomes the association disappears. Therefore, linkage produces no permanent association in the population, but may only be found within the family. The mechanism of association is, therefore, not that of linkage, but may be more likely explained by pleiotropic effects of a single gene.

In carrying out short term therapy involving one to six sessions with doses of 75 μg. to 200 μg. of LSD, the author gained a definite clinical impression that suggestibility was influenced by LSD, although there is little mention of such a parameter in the classification of LSD effects. Remarks meant to be helpful sometimes proved much more effective whilst patients were influenced by LSD than when they had been given in ordinary interview. Classification of the phenomena of LSD intoxication may have therapeutic orientation and dynamic concepts or it may draw on purely descriptive terms with symptomatic significance.

1. Depression is not an illness, but a psychobiological reaction which can be provoked in anyone.

2. It is much more easily provoked in some people than in others.

3. Vulnerability to depression is partly dependent upon social factors, as George Brown has demon strated. It is also determined by internal factors in the personality.

4. There is increasing evidence to show that the child's attachment to his mother is an important determinant of future mental health.

5. It will be argued that children who make ‘anxious attachments’ to the mother, as described by Bowlby, are less likely to incorporate her as a ‘good object’ within the psyche, and that this renders them more vulnerable to later depression than children who form ‘secuartetachments.’

6. Many features of depression in adults resemble or are related to ‘anxiouatstachments.’

7. The way in which psychotherapy can alleviate vulnerability to depression is described in terms of this hypothesis.

8. Reference is also made to the fact that effective action can be a source of self-esteem as well as love. Many of the great creators were partially effective in dealing with vulnerability to depression by work.

9. Freud affirmed that mental health depended upon the capacity to love and the capacity to work. It will be argued that the former capacity has been over-emphasized at the expense of the latter.