Acute schizophrenics, chronic schizophrenics, psychiatric controls and patients with a depressive illness were asked to judge which of two faces in photographs was the more friendly. Acute schizophrenics disagreed significantly with the other three groups of subjects whilst agreeing with them on a control task of perceptual judgement involving colours. In a second experiment a new group of acute schizophrenics disagreed with remitted psychotics and psychotic depressives in judging friendliness and meanness but agreed with these control groups in judging age of the faces. The findings are presented as a potentially fruitful area for research on psychological deficits in schizophrenia.

Little work has been done to determine objective, reliable differences in formal characteristics of the actual utterances of thought-disordered and non-thought-disordered subjects. The type-token ratio (TTR), a quantitative measure of repetition in language, correlated highly with clinical judgments of thought disorder when spoken language was examined, and statistically differentiated thought-disordered from non-thought-disordered schizophrenics and psychiatric and normal controls. Elicited and spontaneous motor abnormalities were associated with reduced TTRs both in schizophrenics and in affective subjects with motor disturbance. The TTR is a reliable, objective indicator of language deviance and thought disorder, and strongly associated with motor disturbances.

Platelet MAO activity was assessed in 35 schizophrenics during a trial of the isomers of flupenthixol. Enzyme activity was unrelated to severity of symptoms, the presence of delusions, hallucinations or thought disorder or to negative symptoms. In a few patients MAO activity fluctuated widely with time, but in the group of patients on medication there was a slow decrease in enzyme activity which was significant after 28 days of treatment. Enzyme activity after 14 days' drug treatment was still correlated with activity before treatment, but after 28 days this significant correlation disappeared. Slow effects of neuroleptic drugs on platelet MAO activity may explain previous findings of reduced activity of the enzyme in schizophrenia.

A total of 150 psychiatric patients—schizophrenics, affective psychotics and neurotics—were compared with 150 normal controls for handedness. Schizophrenics were significantly more likely to be non-dextrals (i.e. not completely right handed) than controls. Affective psychotics and neurotics were not significantly different from controls.

Individuals who speak one or more languages in addition to English comprise a small but important proportion of the general population of this country. In most clinical situations, provided verbal communication is adequate, proficiency in a second language has little medical relevance. Studies of neuropsychiatric disorder in bilinguals and polyglots have, however, demonstrated that their cerebral organization and utilization of language is different to that observed in monolinguals. Such differences have important implications in the clinical presentation and management of neuropsychiatric illness in bilingual patients.

Four experimental interview styles, each recommended by experts in the field, were compared for their efficiency in eliciting factual information during the initial diagnostic interviews with the mothers of children referred to a psychiatric out-patient clinic. If encouraged to talk freely, mothers tended to mention most (but not all) key issues without the need for standardized questioning on a pre-determined range of topics. However, systematic questioning was essential in order to obtain good quality factual data. Better data were obtained when interviewers were sensitive and alert to factual cues and chose their probes with care. Clinically significant factual information, idiosyncratic to the family and outside the range of standard enquiry was common, but was obtained satisfactorily with all four styles. No one style was generally preferred by informants. The advantages of systematic questioning for obtaining factual information were not associated with any disadvantages with respect to the eliciting of emotions and feelings.

The psychological and physiological features of 20 aircrew consecutively referred for treatment of anxiety symptoms when flying were compared with a matched control group of uncomplaining aircrew. There were no significant differences between the two groups on psychometric tests of personality, though there were differences in skin conductance; the phobics had a higher rate of spontaneous fluctuation, and habituated less to a repeated auditory tone. More of the phobic group worried about their wives and acknowledged childhood and other adulthood phobias; more had a family history of an episode perhaps best described as flying trauma. Many were on an overseas posting when symptoms presented. These few features could correctly classify 85 per cent of the subjects into the phobic or control group. This type of ‘phobic aircrew index’ now requires to be validated prospectively for its predictive value.

A detailed record of the smoking habits of 83 patients treated in hospital for neurosis was compared with national statistics derived from the General Household Survey and Statistics of Smoking in the United Kingdom, and with a control group of patients admitted for treatment of varicose veins. Neurotic patients were more likely to be smokers. They started to smoke at a younger age, smoked more cigarettes and were more likely to inhale deeply. It is concluded that neurotic patients have a greater exposure to the potentially toxic effects of cigarette smoking than non-neurotic individuals.

Personal construct theory and repertory grid methodology were applied to a study of psychological change experienced by a sample of ten neurotic depressives and their matched controls during short-term hospitalization. All subjects completed a repertory grid and the Zung depression scale on admission to hospital. Depressives were characterized by lower self-esteem, more negative social perception and higher scores on the Zung scale. Both measures were repeated at the time of discharge from hospital. Depressives showed a significant reduction in depressive mood, more positive social perception, and a change in the construing of the self; controls showed no changes. It is argued that the use of a quantitative assessment technique reinforced by a theoretical framework results in a more refined understanding of psychological change.

The extent to which anxiety, irritability and depression were differentiated as separate entities associated with characteristic patterns of somatic and cognitive symptoms by field dependent (FD) and field independent (Fl) normal female subjects was studied with the Hidden Figures Test and Unpleasant Emotions Questionnaire. In the Fl group the correlations between the three emotions were low and non-significant, reflecting a clear-cut differentiation in symptom configuration, as shown by psychiatrists. In the FD group the inter-correlations were significant and positive, corresponding to relatively poor symptom differentiation, comparable to that of a psychiatric patient group. This suggests that the cognitive style variable of field dependence may underly differences in symptom differentiation associated with psychiatrist/patient differences and, more generally, with social class and sex differences.

Twenty-three patients taking lithium carbonate alone in therapeutic dosage for a mean period of 43 months (range 6–108 months) and 23 control subjects matched for age and sex had the frequency and amplitude of postural tremor measured and extrapyramidal symptoms assessed by standard techniques. Patients on lithium had a significantly lower peak frequency of tremor than control subjects (P <0.05) and significantly greater extrapyramidal symptoms (P <0.01), indicating that tremor appearing after chronic lithium therapy is likely to be an extrapyramidal symptom. Such symptoms are common long-term adverse effects of lithium carbonate.

A case of folie à deux affecting two women friends who presented as a suicide pact is described. The shared delusion was based on their life situation and experiences. Social intervention and obtaining employment led to marked attenuation of the delusion in both partners simultaneously and while in close contact. Review of the relevant literature revealed striking theoretical similarities between folie à deux and suicidal pacts suggesting the ease with which the former could become the foundation for the latter.

The familial incidence of affective illness is well documented. Many studies have shown identical twins to be highly concordant for affective illness (e.g. Price, 1968; Tsuang, 1977). Suicide is strongly linked with affective disorder. However, few cases of both twins committing suicide have been described, and the family reported here, in which several other members also committed suicide by violent means, is thought to be of considerable interest.

This is the first attempt to study the socio-demographic aspects of anxiety disorders in Egypt and to apply the Arabic version of the PSE in evaluating the profiles of clusters and symptoms of anxiety in a sample of 120 patients with anxiety. There were significant differences in some presentations between males and females, between illiterate and educated groups, and between those exposed to mild and severe crowding. Structured interviews like PSE will help in transcultural comparisons of clinical psychiatric disorders.

Although behavioural psychotherapy is a potent therapeutic technology which is now the approach of choice in perhaps 25 per cent of neurotic patients (12 per cent of adult psychiatric outpatients), many psychiatrists are still reluctant to use it as part of their armamentarium in the clinical management required in everyday practice. At least four factors contribute to this resistance.