Animal experiments demonstrate that it is not only the quality of transmitted and received social signals that is important, but also their frequency and the timing of the information transmitted. In order for progress to be made in the investigation of human social behaviour and its disorders, methods must be developed which allow the transmission of verbal and non-verbal information to be measured. Experiments carried out with healthy adults and healthy and disturbed children to investigate human eye contact and distance behaviour are reported, along with experiments on the influence of gaze and body posture on spoken communication. Finally, a report on the use of behaviour therapy for an autistic child is outlined in order to explore the psychobiological correlations between social behaviour and language, which concur with extensive experiments on brain stimulation. It is suggested that there is a cerebral representation for species-specific social behaviour and a vocalization system embedded in these brain structures which is a phylogenetically patterned prerequisite for the development of human language.

Nostalgia, a psychopathological condition affecting individuals who are uprooted, whose social contacts are fragmented, who are isolated and who feel totally frustrated and alienated, was first described in the 17th century and was a problem of considerable interest to physicians in the 18th and 19th centuries. by the 20th century it seemed to have disappeared, but reappeared under other labels.

This is a prognostic study on 41 patients with anorexia nervosa (including three males) who satisfied defined diagnostic criteria. The patients had all been admitted to a metabolic unit where the mainstay of treatment was nursing care aimed at rapid restoration of body weight. A follow-up was conducted after a minimum lapse of four years after each patient's discharge from hospital. The outcome of the patient's illness was expressed in terms of an ‘average outcome score’ and a ‘general outcome’. The series included a relatively high proportion of patients with a long illness who had received previous psychiatric treatment. Their families tended to come from higher social classes; a disturbed relationship with the patient was frequent. Premorbid disturbances in personality development were also common. The immediate response to treatment was excellent, with the majority of the patients returning to a normal weight, but relapses after discharge were common and readmissions were necessary in half the patients. At follow-up, the patients fell into the following defined categories: ‘good’ (39%), ‘intermediate’ (27%), ‘poor’ (29%), died (5%). Most of the patients who failed to recover continued to display the clinical features characteristic of anorexia nervosa. Among predictors of an unfavourable outcome were found a relatively late age of onset, a longer duration of illness, previous admissions to psychiatric hospitals, a disturbed relationship between the patient and other members of the family, and premorbid personality difficulties. It is suggested that the long-term outcome found in a series will depend more on factors influencing patient referral according to the severity of their illness, rather than on the method of treatment itself. The illness may last several years before eventual improvement or recovery, and a follow-up study must be extended over at least four years to be meaningful. An accurate prediction of eventual outcome is almost impossible, but late recoveries justify an optimistic outlook and continued therapeutic endeavour.

A study was designed to assess the therapeutic value of attaching a social worker to a metropolitan group practice in the management of chronic neurotic illness. The psychiatric and social status of a group of patients before treatment and after one year was compared with the status of a control group treated more conventionally over the same period. The results indicate that the experimental service conferred some benefit on the patient population.

An attempt was made to identify background, sociodemographic and clinical variables which are associated with attempted suicide in depression. Within a sample of 308 depressed psychiatric inpatients, suicide attempters were younger than non-attempters and were identified by a pattern of chronic interpersonal maladjustment reflected clinically in withdrawal from social contact and the display of hostility or irritability toward others.

Variable s describing 113 outpatients of a mental health clinic were derived from a Placebo Test, the MMPI, a Symptom Check List, measures of response style, and a questionnaire containing historical and demographic information. Two highly reliable scales, the Placebo Effect Scale (PES) and the Side Effect Scale (SES) were derived from the Placebo Test and served as dependent variables. PES scores were inversely related to reporting symptoms and unrelated to measures of response style. SES scores were directly related to reporting symptoms and with several measures of response style. There was a curvilinear relationship between placebo response and reporting side-effects. Implications of results for further research are presented.

Withdrawal of drug from a group of chlorpromazine-treated chronic male schizophrenics led to a significant rise in the initially low serum tryptophan concentration, and a rise in the fraction freely diffusible. These changes, which would be expected to lead to an increase in tryptophan influx into the brain, and hence to an increase in cerebral serotonin synthesis, could be related to the clinical effects of drug withdrawal.

In a double reversal design the potency of thyrotropin releasing hormone (TRH) (500 μg intravenously) as a quick-acting antidepressive agent was evaluated. A first injection did seem to give rise to a very slight short-lasting effect, though this could not be ascertained clearly. There were no visible effects after a second injection. The thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) response curve after TRH administration in the depressive patients group was blunted in comparison with that in a matched control group of normals.

Factor analysis was performed on objectively measured and subjectively reported characteristics of 46 nights' sleep in four healthy male subjects. The fragmentation of sleep by awakenings during the night, the delay before falling asleep, the total duration of sleep, and the amount of delta-wave sleep formed the bases of four separate factors.