This paper sets out the rationale for the PRiSM Psychosis Study, and the research design used. Nine accompanying papers present the main results. The questions addressed by the PRiSM Psychosis Study are: can the gains of experimental studies which have demonstrated benefits arising from treatment by community mental health teams be translated to routine settings? If so, are the benefits diluted in ordinary clinical practice? What are the costs?

A prospective non-randomised controlled trial of two types of community mental health service, in two phases: case identification followed by patient interviews. For the case identification the research team conducted the complete ascertainment of all prevalent cases of psychosis in the two study catchment areas in the index year (1991–1992). From all 514 patients with psychotic disorders thus identified, 302 were randomly allocated for interview, along with a key informant clinician and a carer. Interviews were undertaken at two time points, two years apart.

This paper presents the socio-demographic, clinical and ethnic characteristics of the patients.

The people with psychosis interviewed for the PRiSM Psychosis Study are representative of the whole epidemiologically based patient population identified.

We critically reviewed the arguments of the symptom-oriented researchers who propose to replace syndromes and diagnostic categories with symptoms as units of analysis in psychiatric research.

Three central arguments were examined: (a) current diagnostic categories lack reliability and validity; (b) using diagnostic categories leads to misclassification and confounding; and (c) symptom-oriented theories are clearer, easier to test, and more likely to lead to an explanation of psychopathology. These arguments are based on three assumptions respectively: (a) symptoms have higher reliability and validity; (b) underlying pathological processes are symptom-specific; and (c) elucidation of the process of symptom development will lead to (and must precede) the discovery of the causes of syndromes.

We found little evidence supporting these assumptions and arguments based on them.

There are no clear advantages in replacing syndromes with symptoms as units of analysis for psychiatric research.

This paper reviews research on the psychological treatment of depression in children.

Manual and computer literature searches were performed.

The most promising psychological interventions for depression in children are individual rather than family therapies. Cognitive – behavioural therapy seems to be an effective treatment for depressive symptoms and mild depressive disorders. It may also be a useful preventive intervention, though this remains to be conclusively demonstrated. There have been no systematic studies comparing psychological treatments with medication.

Studies comparing psychological treatments and medication are now required.

This paper describes and analyses the editor's decision-making process at the British Journal of Psychiatry (BJP), and investigates the association between reviewers' assessments and editorial decisions.

Four hundred consecutive manuscripts submitted over a six-month period to the BJP were examined prospectively for assessors' comments and editorial decisions on acceptance or rejection. Interrater reliability of assessments was calculated and a logistic regression analysis investigated the effect of the rank allocated by assessors and the comprehensiveness of the assessments on the editor's decision.

The editor sent 248/400 (62%) manuscripts to assessors for peer review. Kappa for reliability of assessors' rankings was 0.1 indicating poor interrater reliability. Assessors agreed best on whether to reject a paper. A ranking of five (indicating rejection) had the greatest association with editor's rejection (P < 0.001, odds ratio 0.079), and the mean ranking of assessments was also significantly associated with editorial acceptance or rejection (P=0.004, odds ratio 0.24)

Assessors and editors tend to agree on what is clearly not acceptable for publication but there is less agreement on what is suitable.

Service evaluation requires a detailed understanding of the services studied.

Community mental health services evaluated in the PRiSM Psychosis Study in south London are described. The intensive sector and standard sector services are contrasted.

The intensive sector had two teams with extended opening hours: a psychiatric acute care and emergency (PACE) team, and a psychiatric assertive continuing care (PACT) team focusing on care for people with chronic illness. In the standard sector there was a generic community team providing office-hour assessments, case management of the severely mentally ill and close liaison with in-patient services. The team made use of the local psychiatric emergency clinic and of other local resources. The intensive sector was characterised by: more admissions to fewer beds, more non-hospital residential places, extended hours, on-call rota, wider range of interventions, more medical and nursing staff, a lower nursing grade mix and higher staff turnover. The standard sector had a less highly resourced generic community psychiatric service.

Change in services has been more marked in the intensive sector.

We describe the increased risk of premature death from natural and from unnatural causes for the common mental disorders.

With a Medline search (1966–1995) we found 152 English language reports on the mortality of mental disorder which met our inclusion criteria. From these reports, covering 27 mental disorder categories and eight treatment categories, we calculated standardised mortality ratios (SMRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for all causes of death, all natural causes and all unnatural causes; and for most, SMRs for suicide, other violent causes and specific natural causes.

Highest risks of premature death, from both natural and unnatural causes, are for substance abuse and eating disorders. Risk of death from unnatural causes is especially high for the functional disorders, particularly schizophrenia and major depression. Deaths from natural causes are markedly increased for organic mental disorders, mental retardation and epilepsy.

All mental disorders have an increased risk of premature death.

Antidepressant therapy is not always effective and is slow to take effect. In theory, these shortfalls may be caused by induction of neuronal negative feedback via pre-synaptic 5-HTIA receptors. Pindolol, an antagonist at somatodentritic pre-synaptic 5-HTIA receptors has been investigated as a potential accelerator and augmenter of antidepressant response.

A Medline search was conducted in November 1997.

Six open-label studies and six controlled studies were identified for review Conclusions Open-label studies strongly suggest that pindolol may accelerate and augment antidepressant response, but controlled studies do not wholly support these findings: only three of six studies clearly demonstrate benefit. Larger, well-designed, controlled trials are needed to determine definitively the effectiveness of pindolol in this context.

Many countries have set targets for suicide reduction, and suggested that mental health care providers and general practitioners have a key role to play.

A systematic review of the literature.

Among those in the general population who commit suicide, up to 41% may have contact with psychiatric inpatient care in the year prior to death and up to 9% may commit suicide within one day of discharge. The corresponding figures are 11 and 4% for community-based psychiatric care and 83 and 20% for general practitioners.

Among those who die by suicide, contact with health services is common before death. This is a necessary but not sufficient condition for clinicians to intervene. More work is needed to determine whether these people show characteristic patterns of care and/or particular risk factors which would enable a targeted approach to be developed to assist clinicians in detecting and managing high-risk patients.

This study compared the efficacy and safety of sertraline to placebo in treating panic disorder.

178 out-patients with panic disorder who exhibited at least four panic attacks during the four weeks prior to screening and three during the two weeks of lead-in were randomly assigned to 12 weeks of double-blind treatment with sertraline (50, 100 or 200 mg) or placebo.

Sertraline was superior to placebo in reducing the number of panic attacks, situational attacks, unexpected attacks, limited symptom attacks, and time spent worrying (all P < 0.01) and the Hamilton Anxiety Scale (P < 0.05), although Clinical Global Impression (Improvement) did not significantly differentiate groups at 12 weeks and at end-point. No serious adverse events were associated with sertraline. No dose relationship was found for adverse events; overall drop-out rates were not different for sertraline or placebo, although more sertraline-treated subjects discontinued for adverse events, typically early in the study. Only dry mouth and ejaculation failure (primarily ejaculation delay) were associated significantly with sertraline. Conclusions Sertraline was effective and safe in reducing panic attacks. Higher doses were no more effective than the 50 mg dose.

The risk of suicide in postnatal women is low and those suicides that occur appear to be associated with severe psychiatric illness. No previous study has specifically studied the risk of suicide following post-partum psychiatric disorder.

We calculated standardised mortality ratios (SMRs) for suicide, unnatural deaths and deaths from natural causes for women admitted to psychiatric hospital in the first year after childbirth, using computerised cross-linkages between the Danish Psychiatric Case Register and the Danish registers of birth and causes of death for 1973–1993.

During the study period 1567 women were admitted to psychiatric hospital of whom 107 (6.8%) died. The SMRs (compared with 100) were 1719 (95% CI 1284–2254) for suicide, 1329 (95% CI 1038–1676) for all unnatural causes and 238 (95% CI 167–329) for natural causes. Suicides and deaths from all unnatural causes were most likely to occur in the first year after childbirth, the SMR for suicide within one year being 7216 (95% CI 3945–12 108).

Although postnatal women as a whole appear to have a low rate of suicide, severe post-partum psychiatric disorder is associated with a high rate of deaths from natural and unnatural causes, particularly suicide. The risk is especially high in the first postnatal year, when the suicide risk is increased 70-fold. Close clinical superivision at this time is indicated.