Young women who had attempted suicide did not score in a more hysterical manner than women in a comparison group when assessed by the Hysteroid-Obsessoid Questionnaire. Those who made suicide attempts resulting in little physical harm more often demonstrated hysterical traits than those whose attempt involved a serious threat to life. However, even in those subjects the majority did not score in an hysteroid manner, and they certainly scored in a less hysteroid manner than subjects of the comparison group.

These results are in accord with the small literature using standardised assessments, and do not support the clinical view that young women who attempt suicide exhibit marked hysterical traits.

Epilepsy is as old as history. To the ancients it was a sacred disease, each convulsion signifying a visitation of its victim by one of the gods. Hippocrates first seriously attributed epilepsy to material causes, but the light of scientific approach which he momentarily kindled was soon extinguished, and for centuries the mysteries of epilepsy remained shrouded in a cloud of mysticism and religious cult, and if treatment was administered at all it usually consisted of incantations and spirit-exorcising rituals. In the modern era of medicine scientific battle has been joined with this disease in common with all others, and since the epileptic, like most other sufferers, is liable to an exacerbation of his disease in times of mental and physical stress, the present human warfare cannot but render more important than ever successes in the therapeutic field against epilepsy.

In a survey of training in child psychiatry in Great Britain, all senior registrars were sent questionnaires; the response rate was 69 per cent. We describe background factors of the trainees, details of the clinical and academic experience available to them, and their attitudes towards their training.

Most trainees had had extensive previous experience in adult psychiatry and the predominant orientation was psychoanalytic. In general, they approved of the guidelines for training issued by the Joint Committee for Higher Psychiatric Training. Family therapy was the most popular treatment method. We comment on their training experience where the interest expressed was not matched by adequate availability of the training facilities.

In 1894 the term “perseveration” was first used in psychiatry by Neisser to indicate abnormally persistent repetition of an activity after the activity should have been completed, such as is shown in the frequent speaking or writing of a word or words in unsuitable places. Thus originally the term was descriptive of a particular and circumscribed symptom to be recognized in the clinic. In 1900 the term was used in psychology by Müller to indicate the tendency which every idea has, after having once occurred, to remount spontaneously into consciousness.

A review of the history and experimental findings relating to the spiral after-effect can be found elsewhere (5) and will not be repeated here. The reliability of the after-effect, the major role played by the cortex in its production and the evidence already obtained that the after-effect is modifiable in accordance with Eysenck's drug action hypothesis (2) indicated it to be a promising test in the investigation into the effects of meprobamate on perception.

The patient in the case presented below lacerated his wrists under conditions which have been used experimentally (8) and observed in man (7, 9) to produce alcohol amnesia. His family history is typical of those seen frequently in suicidal attempts (2).

Psychiatry is under threat from developments within mental health care. In educating future psychiatrists, more emphasis should be placed upon: collaborative research; integrated teamwork, without interprofessional rivalry; work in primary care; the non-scientific components of psychiatry, centred upon relationships with patients; less dogmatic attitudes for or against psychoanalysis; psychiatry as a branch of medicine; and modern management and audit methods. Younger psychiatrists should be encouraged to take responsibility for shaping the future of the profession.

The problem of differentiating, in patients of the pre-senile age group, the degree and quality of intellectual impairment that is due to depression from that which is brought about by some organic, cerebral deterioration is one of some practical importance. It is, in fact, as Henderson and Gillespie (1950) stress, an important point to determine with regard to the prognosis of depressive cases of this age” whether or not there is any complicating organic process causing a failure of memory and efficiency. If such is present then the prognosis must be viewed much more gravely than would otherwise be indicated.”

Despite swings between over-valuation and rejection of psychotherapy on the part of some psychiatrists, there remains a valid and necessary place for psychotherapy in psychiatry. The essential elements of that place are described.

Prader–Willi syndrome (PWS) is a rare condition because of the deletion of paternal chromosomal material (del PWS), or a maternal uniparental disomy (mUPD PWS), at 15q11-13. Affective psychosis is more prevalent in mUPD PWS. We investigated the relationship between the two PWS genetic variants and brain-stem serotonin transporter (5-HTT) availability in adult humans. Mean brain-stem 5-HTT availability determined by [123I]-beta-CIT single photon emission tomography was lower in eight adults with mUPD PWS compared with nine adults with del PWS (mean difference −0.93, t = −2.85, P = 0.014). Our findings confirm an association between PWS genotype and brain-stem 5-HTT availability, implicating a maternally expressed/paternally imprinted gene, that is likely to account for the difference in psychiatric phenotypes between the PWS variants.

Loxapine was introduced to the British market two years ago although it has been used in North America for eight years. We report the first probable case of neuroleptic malignant syndrome (NMS) secondary to loxapine in Britain. Two previous cases have been reported in North America (manufacturer's data).