In uncontrolled studies, several behavioural methods, including habit reversal, were said to be useful in writer's cramp. In this controlled study, 23 subjects with writer's cramp recruited from a neurology clinic were randomly allocated to five sessions over four weeks of either habit reversal training or a control treatment of relaxation training. Three subjects dropped out. Twenty patients (9 habit reversers, 11 controls) completed the trial up to three months follow-up. Outcome measures included observation of writing within the session, assessment of writing tasks completed at home, and blind ratings by an independent assessor. The results showed that habit reversal was no better than relaxation. Taking both treatments together, patients improved to three months follow-up on seven of nine measures, but remained substantially handicapped.

Three-hundred-and-thirty cases of unnatural death, leading to 110 open verdicts, 110 verdicts of suicide and 11o of accident, from the Inner West London Coroner's District have been examined to see if particular coroner's officers or pathologists were associated with disproportionate numbers of suicide verdicts. No significant deviations from the expected numbers were found. Coroner's officers probably share common ideas about the features defining suicide, and so do pathologists.

Good scientific hypotheses rarely succumb to a lack of confirmatory evidence; they may sometimes even be resistant to apparent outright refutation (Kuhn, 1970; Lakatos, 1970). Considering this, Kuhn (1970) suggested that the dominant hypotheses in a field are often replaced not on grounds of greater theoretical coherence but rather on grounds of strategic necessity.

Since the introduction of chlorpromazine in the 1950s, followed by the discovery (with in vitro receptor binding assays), in the mid-1970s, that antipsychotic drugs block a subtype of dopamine receptor (D2/D2-like) (Creese et al, 1976) and that affinity for these receptors appears to correlate directly with clinical potency for antipsychotics (Peroutka & Synder, 1980), the study of neurotransmitters and receptors has been a major target of schizophrenia research (Owens, 1996). In 1983, the first visualisation, by positron emission tomography (PET), of the binding of D2 dopamine receptors in the brain of a living human subject was reported (Wagner et al, 1983). Following this, the number of research studies using PET and single photon emission tomography (SPET) has increased enormously.

Delusional memories have an established place in psychiatric phenomenology and use of the term extends to its inclusion in the Present State Examination (Wing et al, 1974). Not all writers have used the term, however, and present definitions are inconsistent. This paper attempts to clarify the significance of delusional memories for a diagnosis of schizophrenia according to Schneiderian criteria.

Despite renewed interest in ECT as a continuation treatment after an episode of depressive illness, few guidelines for its use are available. Meaningful research findings are few, although the potential benefits and risks of modern continuation ECT merit study. We suggest preliminary guidelines and provide an illustrative clinical example.

This report describes a young patient with acute overdose lithium toxicity, who developed severe memory impairment in spite of treatment with haemodialysis. His memory showed gradual recovery, but definite impairment could still be detected 2 months after the overdose.

The main questions of diagnosis and classification of depressive illness put forward by Sir Aubrey Lewis in the 30's are still under discussion. Despite the many published clinical studies of affective illness, there remain—as recently stressed by Klerman (1971)—problems requiring further description and investigation.

Of the many diverse treatments for impotence (Cooper, 1971) perhaps in some ways the most novel are the various mechanical devices which to date have never been adequately tested; although there are reasons to believe that they would be safer (even if no more effective) than many drugs in present use. A modern innovation of the penile splint (Lydston, 1908) is the Blakoe ‘Energiser’ Ring which is made of ebonite, with five small metal plates on opposite inner surfaces. It opens on a swivel so that the lower half can be placed high up under the scrotum and when the upper part is swung around, closing the ring, the penis, scrotum and testicles are enclosed within it, but hang freely below.

The ‘gains' of Munchausen syndrome cannot readily be understood on a rational level, and are presumed to be intra-psychic. The presenting fabrications often follow a remarkably similar pattern, and some psychodynamic insight might be gained by analysis of the general themes and contents. The case of one typical patient is reported here, and the aetiology and symbolic significance discussed.

Two-stage screening for minor psychiatric morbidity was carried out with a consecutive sample of 256 patients aged 15–69 consulting an experienced GP in a semirural setting over a seven-week period. Patients completed a short GHQ, and the GP made a standardised assessment of the reason for consultation and the degree of psychological disorder. A 40% random subsample were evaluated using PROQSY, a newly developed computerised psychiatric assessment based on the CIS. PROQSY is acceptable to patients in general practice, and yields an estimate of the prevalence of minor psychiatric morbidity (33%), and validity indices for the 12-item, 28-item, and 30-item GHQs, comparable with those found in similar studies, when the CIS has been administered by an interviewer. PROQSY may be recommended as a research tool, providing a criterion measure of minor psychiatric morbidity in general practice, where it may reduce time and manpower, and eliminate interviewer bias.

This paper gives a brief outline of the present state of development of the psychiatric chapter of the tenth revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10). It is written from the point of view of one of the many consultants to the Division of Mental Health, World Health Organization (WHO), Geneva, and thus is not an authoritative or official statement on behalf of WHO. The responsibility for decisions about ICD-10 Chapter V (F) rests with Dr Norman Sartorius, Director of the Division of Mental Health, though many psychiatrists in many countries have contributed to ICD-10 Chapter V (F), and will continue to do so, since much work is still to be done before the final form is officially agreed and published in about 1990. Before he left WHO, Geneva in September, 1986, Dr Assen Jablensky also carried a great deal of responsibility for the arrangements necessary for the production of the drafts of ICD-10 Chapter V (F) that are now being developed.

The non-fatal deliberate taking of overdoses in Cork city during 1982 was investigated from records in the general hospitals. In one of the hospitals, those attending after an overdose were personally interviewed. For both sexes, the greatest incidence of overdoses was in the younger groups; for females, there was a seasonal variation. Those taking overdoses were grouped by electoral wards, and the social characteristics of these wards determined. The frequency varied greatly throughout the city; some wards, particularly in corporation northern estates and part of the city centre, showed a rate of up to three times the average; these areas were the most likely to show social deprivation.