The question whether schizophrenic mothers have increased risk for obstetric complications (OCs) has practical relevance to fertility recommendations and obstetric surveillance for such women. From a theoretical viewpoint the study of OCs in schizophrenic women concerns the possible relationship between tension-anxiety and OCs, and, additionally, whether the offspring have an increased risk for disturbance based at least partially upon an increased incidence of OCs. Recent evidence suggests a relationship or interaction between genetic factors contributed through family lineage and OCs attending the gestation of genetically-high-risk offspring. Increased OC rates have been found to be differentially characteristic of the pre-schizophrenics or the pre-disturbed persons within discordant monozygotic twin pairs (27), discordant regular sibling pairs (23), and offspring of schizophrenic mothers (18). Mednick (15, p. 56) has suggested that the OCs ‘trigger some characteristic which may be genetically predisposed’.

At the present time there is a renewal of interest in the contribution of biological factors to schizophrenic illness. This stems in part from the success of pharmacological treatment and in part from the impressive findings in studies of foster-reared relatives of schizophrenics. While the pendulum of emphasis thus seems to be generally swinging in favour of constitutional influences, recent reports on twin studies have tended to go in the opposite direction. As will be discussed below, this development is largely attributable to a methodological error in the most recent twin investigations.

The present study is the psychological part of a comprehensive study of male patients with the XYY syndrome from the Cytogenetic Laboratory, Risskov (Nielsen, 1968, 1969, 1971; Nielsen et al., 1969a, b; and Nielsen and Henriksen, 1972).

In the United States of America, many centres are now running automated data programmes in the psychiatric field (Kline and Laska, 1968; Ulett and Sletten, 1971). In Britain, such developments have been much more restricted; prominent examples however are the North-East Scotland psychiatric register, and the Maudsley Hospital—Institute of Psychiatry check-list, together with the Camberwell register. As a clinical itemization, the ‘Present Psychiatric State’ (Wing et al., 1967) presents a comprehensive listing of over 400 symptoms, the evaluation being confined to the previous four weeks of the patient's experience. This is a valuable research tool, but for routine clinical history requirements it would be both too detailed and, by definition, too limited in scope.

This case report describes an apparently effective treatment of severe obsessional rituals which was carried out along with therapy of marital discord. Previous treatments directed towards the obsessional symptoms had little effect, but conjoint marital therapy produced marked improvement. The treatment consisted of asking each spouse to list the desired behaviour in the other; each then agreed to carry out a previously specified activity which the other desired.

The advantages of a new sustained release form of amitriptyline (Lentizol) which can be given in a single dose for the treatment of depressive illness have recently been described by Sims (1972) and Haider (1972). This paper reports a similar double blind cross-over trial in the treatment of depressive illness (ICD 296) of the same substance compared against conventional amitriptyline at an overall higher dosage level.

The problem of the long-stay patient in the Mental Hospital has been discussed for a long time. The prediction that there would be a steady decline in the number of these patients made by Tooth and Brooke (1951) has not been borne out by the evidence of Baldwin and Hall (1967), and more recently by Hailey (1971). They have shown that although there has been a fall in numbers the rate has been far from steady.

Dipotassium clorazepate is a new benzodiazepine derivative with pharmacological and clinical properties resembling diazepam. This report concerns a double-blind placebo-controlled crossover comparison of clorazepate and diazepam which was carried out simultaneously at four centres in the United Kingdom.

Electroconvulsive therapy with unilateral electrode placement has been tried most often in depressive disorders (Abrams and de Vito, 1969; Cannicott, 1962; Cannicott and Waggoner, 1967; Costello et al., 1970; d'Elia, 1970; Fleminger et al., 1970; Levy, 1968; Martin et al., 1965; Strain et al., 1968; Valentine et al., 1968; Zinkin and Birtchnell, 1968; Lancaster et al., 1958), although Lancaster (op. cit.) noted that it was as effective as bilateral ECT in relieving certain other psychotic symptoms, such as catatonia, stupor and hallucinations. This paper reports the comparative results in schizophrenia of bilaterally administered ECT and of ECT administered unilaterally to either the dominant or the non-dominant hemisphere.

Aphasia is frequently combined with or mistaken for other behavioural abnormalities, and the psychiatrist is often asked to see patients with aphasia. Recognition and appropriate diagnosis alone present a considerable challenge; in addition, a variety of behavioural disturbances occur in aphasie individuals which need the attention of the psychiatrist. Despite the frequent appearance of aphasie symptoms in medial practice, the disorder remains poorly understood by many medical practitioners, and the specific psychiatric aspects have received very little recognition. These conditions will be the subject of this presentation.

The use of feedback techniques as therapeutic tools has increased quite considerably during the last decade (Berger, 1970). Techniques such as videotape and tape recorder playback have been used with a wide rage of patients, and to secure effects such as ‘overcoming resistance’, ‘evoking insight’, ‘increasing motivation for psychotherapy’ and ‘shocking alcoholics back to reality’. The general strategy has involved making a recording of the patient's behaviour, or a sample of therapeutic interaction; the recording is then played back to the participants and often used as a basis for discussion and further treatment. In spite of the enthusiasm about the value of these techniques, empirical and scientific evidence for their efficacy is almost entirely absent (Bailey and Sowder, 1970).

A diagnosis of personality disorder is commonly used in psychiatry. It is generally agreed to refer to a disorder manifested by limited adaptive flexibility and certain relatively fixed ineffectual modes of behaviour (Ausubel, 1961; Brody and Lindbergh, 1967; DSM II, 1968; Noyes and Kolb, 1958; Schneider, 1950; Small, Small, Alig and Moore, 1970; Walton, Foulds, Littman and Presly, 1970). However, of twenty or more different types of personality disorders only antisocial personality has been differentiated by rigorous criteria as a distinct diagnostic entity (Robins, 1967; Feighner, Robins, Guze, Woodruff, Winokur and Munoz, 1972; Robins, 1966).

The abuse of cannabis and its consequences to mental health have been a subject of much debate in recent years. While the literature is replete with reports of mental disturbances following acute intoxications (1, 4, 7, 15), the mental health implications of long-term abuse of cannabis remain speculative (9, 13). Since the drug possesses psychotomimetic and hallucinogenic (8) properties, prolonged experimentation with cannabis on human subjects is undesirable. The clinical manifestations of disturbed mental functioning due to chronic abuse of cannabis can therefore be best observed in societies where the drug is taken as a pastime, generally to enjoy pleasant euphoria. Such a situation is found in India where the use of cannabis has become woven into the general philosophy of life over the years. The drug is particularly used at religious ceremonies, and sweets and non-alcoholic beverages containing varying quantities of cannabis are traditionally offered and consumed during the colour-throwing festival of Holi.

A nine-month-old baby was admitted to hospital following attacks by his father. The baby had been choked, then injured by prolonged banging against furniture; finally, he had been picked up by one leg and thrown across the room. The child had also been attacked previously.

The purpose of this paper is to report on ten cases of this uncommon syndrome admitted to Woodbridge Hospital, Singapore, and studied by the author in a systematic way. No attempt will be made to review the literature, as this has already been done recently by Goldin and MacDonald (1955), Enoch and Irving (1962), Enoch et al. (1967) and Whitlock (1967). The Ganser syndrome appears to be getting rarer in the West, as reports in recent literature have usually covered a few cases only: May et al. (1960) reported three cases and Whitlock (1967), six cases.

A family doctor's wife, aged 42, S.R.N., J.P., social worker and citizen of excellent character, drove her car through a nearby town at about 10.30 p.m. on an autumn night. Later a cyclist was found dead in the road along which she had just passed, parts of her car were found at the scene of the accident, and subsequently damage to her car was found to correspond with the damage to be expected had it been involved in this accident.

The theory has been put forward in Crime and Personality (Eysenck, 1964) that criminals are characterized by a combination of extraverted and neurotic personality traits; put in operational terms, it was suggested that compared with a control group of normal (non-criminal) subjects they would have higher scores on the N and E scales of the MPI or the EPI (Eysenck, 1959; Eysenck and Eysenck, 1964). In the second edition of the book the further hypothesis was added that prisoners would also be characterized by high P scores; the letter P refers to a third dimension of personality provisionally entitled ‘psychoticism’. Earlier investigations of the N x E hypothesis have been reviewed in the second edition of Crime and Personality (Eysenck, 1970) and by Passingham (1972); the most recent study of both hypotheses is contained in two papers dealing with the personality makeup of male prisoners (Eysenck and Eysenck, 1970, 1971). The conclusions to be drawn from an examination of the literature are as follows: (1) As far as P is concerned, prisoners undoubtedly have much higher scores than do various types of control groups. (2) As far as N is concerned, most studies show prisoners to have significantly higher scores than controls. (3) As far as E is concerned, it appears that scores sometimes do and sometimes do not separate prisoners and controls in the predicted direction; it seems that we must distinguish between the two main components of E, i.e. sociability and impulsivity (Eysenck and Eysenck, 1969). Prisoners are significantly more impulsive, but less sociable, than controls.

Several years have passed since the last study of the psychiatric abnormalities shown by epileptic patients in an English mental hospital (2), during which time detailed information has become available about the development of schizophreniform states in some chronic epileptics (3). This study was undertaken to examine the mental state of patients with epilepsy resident in Bexley Hospital, using a semi-structured psychiatric interview technique (6). The criteria used for the definition of epilepsy were those of Gunn and Fenton (1)—a history of at least three epileptic attacks in a two-year-period, and continuation of anti-convulsant therapy if the period did not immediately precede the time of examination.