The present study examined responses on the Fear Questionnaire (FQ) of 68 patients suffering panic disorder with agoraphobia, 50 social phobics, 75 subjects with ‘non-clinical’ panic attacks, and 188 non-panicking controls. The FQ agoraphobia and social subscales had satisfactory internal consistency and were accurate (82%) in correctly differentiating the patients. In general, the patient and control groups differed as expected. The highest level of social fear was reported by social phobics and the highest level of agoraphobic fear was reported by patients with panic disorder and agoraphobia. Five items from these two subscales significantly differentiated social phobia from panic disorder with agoraphobia. The results support the reliability and validity of the FQ.

To investigate the predictive value of a wide range of variables for distinguishing subjects who demonstrate a favourable treatment response from those who do not, 86 women with a DSM–III–R diagnosis of bulimia nervosa who completed a group treatment programme for eating disorders were studied. Discriminant-function analysis of demographic variables, weight history, specific eating-disorder psychopathology, mood status and social adjustment before treatment was performed; five factors (depression and core symptoms of eating disorder) best discriminated ‘positive’ from ‘poor’ treatment responders, accounting for 44% of the variance.

In this paper, object-relations theory is used to illuminate problems encountered in the psychotherapeutic management of severely disturbed psychiatric patients. The hazards of idealisation of the psychiatrist by the patient are reported in four case histories. Attention is drawn to the subsequent breakthrough of negative feelings where idealisation had been unrecognised or unwittingly encouraged. Some implications for the more successful management of the transference in patients such as these are discussed.

‘A striking and specific loss of the messenger RNA that encodes a non-N-methyl D-aspartate (non-NMDA) glutamate receptor was found in hippocampal tissue obtained at necropsy from 6 patients with schizophrenia, when compared to specimens from 8 controls without neurological or psychiatric signs or symptoms. These findings support suggestions of aberrant glutamatergic function in schizophrenia. Evidence that gene expression may be abnormal in schizophrenia, with decreased production of an excitatory neurotransmitter receptor, may have therapeutic as well as pathogenetic implications.’