This study was designed to test the hypothesis that patients with SAD have significantly different physiological responses to light than healthy age- and sex-matched controls. We studied retinal contrast sensitivity, visual evoked EEG responses, and melatonin suppression by, and cerebral blood flow response to, full-spectrum artificial daylight. There was no significant difference between 10 patients and 11 controls in retinal contrast sensitivity, or amplitude or latency of N2, P2, P100 or P300 on EEG. We compared melatonin suppression in 12 SAD patients and 12 controls. During exposure to 500 lux and 1500 lux artificial daylight both the SAD patients and controls had a significant melatonin percentage suppression; however, the percentage suppression did not differ significantly between the SAD patients and the controls. In addition, we carried out a small pilot study into the effect of light on cerebral blood flow in four SAD patients and four controls. Before exposure to 1500 lux artificial daylight there was no significant difference between patients and controls in global, regional or cerebral hemispheric blood flow. After light exposure the SAD patients and controls had a significantly different percentage change in cerebral blood flow. We suggest that patients with SAD do not have significantly physiological responses to light than controls, except perhaps in cerebral blood flow. Furthermore, mechanisms other than supersensitivity of melatonin suppression must explain both the pathophysiology of the disorder and its response to treatment with light.

The purpose of this study was to test the effect of gender on the familial risk for schizophrenia and affective disorders in probands with schizoaffective disorder. The sample consisted of 42 DSM–III schizoaffective probands and 149 first-degree relatives from the retrospective cohort family studies, the Iowa 500 and non-500. Survival analysis estimated differences in morbidity risks, analysed by sex of proband and of relative. Findings showed that, among probands, relatives of females had significantly higher rates of schizophrenia and unipolar disorder than relatives of males. Further, among relatives, males were at significantly higher risk for schizophrenia spectrum disorders than females. Results were similar when probands were subdivided into their primary symptom patterns, that is ‘mainly schizophrenic’ or ‘mainly affective’, as well as by ‘schizoaffective, depressed’ or ‘schizoaffective, manic’. Implications for the taxonomy of schizoaffective disorder suggest a stronger relationship with schizophrenia, although the relationship with affective disorder remains unclear.

Recent studies have indicated that long-term lithium treatment reduces the expected suicidal activity and overall mortality of patients with affective disorders. Based on the data from the lithium clinics in Berlin and Hamilton (n = 512), a minimum length of two years of continued lithium treatment is needed to reduce the high mortality resulting from affective disorders.

This study examines the prevalence of self-damaging and addictive behaviour in a consecutive series of 112 normal-weight bulimic women all stemming from the same urban catchment area. A quarter reported consuming over 36 units of alcohol a week, and nine drank over 50 units. Twenty-eight per cent abused drugs, 21% repeatedly stole, 18% repeatedly overdosed, and 8% regularly cut themselves. In all, 40% reported self-damaging and addictive behaviour, 80% of whom gave a history of three or more behaviours together. Alcohol abuse was significantly associated with drug abuse and repeated overdosing; repeated cutting was significantly associated with drug abuse. Repeated stealing and overdosing were markers of severity and did not occur in isolation. A core group, termed and defined by the author as ‘multi-impulsive bulimics', were older, less likely to be employed, married, or in a stable union, but were more likely to have an alcohol-abusing partner or to come from a family with a history of alcohol abuse. They were also more likely to give a history of sexual abuse.

Twenty chronic schizophrenic patients, ten matched normal controls and nine depressed controls performed categorical verbal fluency tasks for three minutes each on five separate occasions. On each occasion the schizophrenic patients generated significantly fewer words than the controls. Comparison of the different occasions showed that the schizophrenic patients had as many words available in their inner lexicons but were inefficient in retrieving them. The schizophrenic patients also generated fewer clusters of related words and more words outside the specified category. Reduced ability to generate words while the lexicon remained intact was more marked in patients with negative features. Patients with incoherence, in contrast, were more likely to produce inappropriate words. We propose that both poverty of speech and incoherence of speech reflect problems in the retrieval of words from the lexicon. To cope with these problems patients with poverty of speech terminate their search prematurely while the patients with incoherence commit errors in selecting words for output.

We examined 24-hour melatonin rhythms from 20 patients with seasonal affective disorder (SAD) and 20 healthy volunteers. Patients and controls were individually matched for age, sex, and month of study. Plasma samples were taken at hourly intervals, and were assayed for melatonin by radio-immunoassay. The 24-hourly melatonin estimations for each individual were fitted to a cosine curve, and the significance of the curve fits was calculated. Two analyses were performed. In analysis 1 the following were calculated: (a) cosine fit, (b) significance of fits, (c) mean amplitude and acrophase (peak) and (d) mean melatonin levels. The curve fits were highly significant for all but three subjects (two patients, one control), but there were no significant differences in any measure between the two groups. In analysis 2 the comparisons were repeated and restricted to the 18 patients and 19 controls in whom there was a statistically significant melatonin rhythm. Again there were no significant differences between groups. These results suggest that the circadian rhythm of melatonin is not abnormal in SAD, and that the therapeutic effect of light in SAD is not mediated by phase shifts in melatonin secretion.

We summarise a series of studies using a MAOI to help establish the validity of a subgroup of depressives referred to as atypical depressives. Patients with reactive mood meeting DSM-III criteria for depressive illness who had associated atypical features (which include hyperphagia, hypersomnolence, leaden paralysis, and rejection sensitivity) were randomised to imipramine, phenelzine and placebo. Non-responders were crossed over, and in all there were over 400 patient trials. Phenelzine consistently was found to be superior to imipramine. Only in trials which included patients lacking atypical, vegetative symptoms was imipramine found to equal phenelzine. We conclude that the researcher and the clinician should consider the relevance of the atypical depressive syndrome.

The outcome of clinical drug trials is influenced both by biological and by non-biological factors. Non-biological factors can be subdivided into methodological factors and non-drug factors. The former are related to the definition and measurement of treatment course, response, and outcome itself; the latter cover characteristics of the patient, the treatment milieu, the patient's milieu apart from treatment, and (planned) psychosocial interventions. Although their mechanism of interaction with treatment outcome is not yet fully understood, these non-drug factors should be routinely monitored in clinical trials for three practical reasons: (a) to control for the heterogeneity of outcome; (b) to develop individualised outcome predictors; and (c) to promote the development of individualised guidelines for treatment indication.

Concern over the cost of health care is playing an increasing role in Great Britain, but evaluation of benefit is generally inadequate. This is particularly true in the case of depression, for which the cost of drugs is 1.9% of the National Health Service pharmaceutical budget. Since differences in effectiveness between antidepressant drugs are difficult to demonstrate, quality-of-life studies may help to identify outcome differences. At present, the worst outcome of depressive illness - suicide - absolves carers from further costs. An assessment is needed which takes into account both the direct and indirect costs of depression; this should include the costs of investment into improving diagnosis. Even without financial analyses, it is clear that some cases of suicide can be prevented by prescribing less toxic drugs, but research is needed to investigate whether use of these drugs also reduces the costs of overdose.

This paper describes the development of the PAS-ADD, a semistructured clinical interview for use specifically with patients with learning disabilities, based on items drawn from the PSE. The PAS-ADD includes a number of novel features including: parallel interviewing of patient and informant; a three-tier structure to provide a flexible interview appropriate to the patient's intellectual level; use of a memorable ‘anchor event’ in the patient's life to improve time focus; and simplified wording, improved organisation and lay out. Inter-rater reliability was investigated using an experimental design in which two raters viewed and re-rated videotaped PAS-ADD interviews which had been conducted by an experienced clinician. Reliability results compared favourably with those obtained in a major study of PSE reliability with a sample drawn from non-learning disabled individuals. Mean kappa for all items was 0.72. Other indexes of reliability were also good. In the current phase of development, the PAS-ADD is to be expanded to include further diagnostic categories, including schizophrenia and autism. The new version will be updated for use with ICD–10 criteria.

Detailed case reports of incidents of suicide and attempted suicide on the London Underground railway system between 1985 and 1989 were examined for the presence of suicide notes. The incidence of note-leaving was 15%. Notes provided little insight into the causes of suicide as subjectively perceived, or strategies for suicide prevention.

Age-standardised rates were calculated for first admissions to hospital in Scotland with ICD-9 diagnoses of schizophrenia, affective psychoses, paranoid psychoses, reactive psychoses and depressive neuroses (ICD-9 295, 296, 297, 298 and 300.4) for the period 1969–88. First-admission rates for schizophrenia declined by an average of 3.3% per year in males and 4.4% per year in females over the period. The first-admission rate in males in 1988 was 8.4/100 000 (57% of 1969 rate) and in females was 4.8/100 000 (43% of 1969 rate). Rates for depressive neuroses, affective psychoses, reactive psychoses and combined psychoses also fell. Rates for mania rose, as did those for paranoid states in males. The decrease in first-admission rates is likely to reflect a true decrease in the incidence of schizophrenia over the period. The decline was unlikely to be accounted for by diagnostic change because there was no reciprocal increase in any other diagnosis sufficient to account for the change, and the rates for combined psychoses also decreased. There was evidence that rates for schizophrenia declined to a greater extent in younger age groups, especially in females. This could imply the presence of a birth cohort effect.

While research has shown community-based psychiatric care to be as good as, or better than, hospital-based care, generalisation to clinical practice has been difficult. This prospective, randomised controlled study examined a community-based approach feasible within NHS conditions. Ninety-four patients were randomly allocated to experimental and 78 to control treatments and followed for one year. The groups were well matched apart from an excess of psychotic control patients. No differences in clinical or social functioning outcome were found. Both groups improved substantially on clinical measures in the first six weeks, with some slow consolidation thereafter. There were three suicides in the control group and one in the experimental group. Access to care was better in the experimental group (93% attended assessment) than in the control group (75% attended assessment).

We describe a double-blind study involving 58 in-patients with major depression (DSM-III). After one week on placebo, the patients were randomly assigned to either levoprotiline or maprotiline treatment for three weeks. In the next three weeks, responders were maintained on the same medication and non-responders were shifted to treatment with the complementary drug. After the initial three weeks' treatment, 31% of levoprotiline patients and 58% of maprotiline patients had responded. Both in the initial three-week treatment period and after shifting non-responders to the complementary drug, there were significant differences in favour of maprotiline. The comparison of properties of different outcome criteria in prediction analyses shows that the final score gives the best agreement with global evaluation; using the delta score (final minus baseline) or ratio score (final/baseline) as the outcome criterion may yield paradoxical results.

Investigation of the relationships between negative schizophrenic symptoms, abnormal involuntary movements and age in 179 chronic schizophrenic patients confirmed that both orofacial and trunk and limb dyskinesia are associated with negative symptoms, but only orofacial dyskinesia showed a significant increase in prevalence with increasing age. Estimation of the mean age of onset of orofacial dyskinesia from the observed variation in prevalence of orofacial dyskinesia with age indicated that patients having negative symptoms tend to develop orofacial dyskinesia at an earlier age. The estimated mean age of onset was 43.6 years in patients with substantial negative symptoms, and 54.6 years in patients without substantial negative symptoms. These findings support the proposal that the pathological process underlying negative symptoms can contribute to the occurrence of both orofacial and trunk and limb dyskinesia, but, in the case of orofacial dyskinesia, there is a synergistic interaction between the pathological process underlying negative symptoms and age-related neuronal changes.

Recent reports that some influenza epidemics may be followed by a transient increase in the births of schizophrenic patients have led to the hypothesis that maternal viral infections contribute to the aetiology of schizophrenia. It is well known that respiratory viral infections are frequently brought into the home by young children. We tested the predictions that the risk of schizophrenia is decreased in first-born children, and increased in individuals who had siblings of a young age while in utero, using data from a Swedish family study. Our results are consistent with these predictions. In particular, having siblings three to four years older was associated with a significantly increased risk of schizophrenia, even after allowing for birth order, sibship size, and other potential confounders. If replicated, these results provide indirect support for the maternal viral infection hypothesis, although there are alternative explanations.

Eleven patients with seasonal affective disorder (SAD) and ten controls matched for age, IQ, and education were tested on a number of computerised tests designed to assess attention, memory, and learning. When depressed, patients showed no deficit in attention but were impaired on spatial memory and learning. They were also significantly slower to respond than controls, with a pattern that suggested slowed information processing centrally, rather than simple sensory or motor slowing. On recovery from depression, improvement was seen in most tests, although impairment remained in latency to respond on a test of spatial memory. This continuing impairment correlated with residual depressive symptoms but not with ventricular brain ratio (VBR).

Antidepressants, as the term is currently understood, were introduced into clinical practice in the late 1950s. The first of these was imipramine, shortly to be followed by amitriptyline and then by a series of related compounds - all chemically ‘tricyclics’. These subsequently became known as the ‘first-generation’ antidepressants; imipramine and amitriptyline in particular have since become the standards against which others have been compared.

We present a prevalence study of psychiatric morbidity in people over 50 years of age with learning disability (LD), using a new semistructured clinical interview specifically for use with people who have LD (the ‘PAS-ADD’). Assessment involved parallel interviewing of subject and informant, these two sets of information being combined to reach a final diagnosis using ICD-9 and DSM-III-R criteria. Detection of dementia involved interviews with informants, plus investigation of loss of cognitive function over a three-year period. The experimental sample was a mixed community and institutional group (n = 105), including, as far as possible, all people in a single administrative district (Oldham) matching the age and ability criteria. Prevalence of psychiatric disorder excluding dementia was 11.4% (n = 12), most of which were depression and anxiety. Seventy-five per cent of these cases were unknown to mental health services. However, immediate care staff were usually aware of the symptoms, although often unaware of their clinical significance. Prevalence of dementia was also 11.4% (n = 12), with a combined case prevalence of 21.0% (n = 22). The PAS-ADD proved a flexible interview, effective in use with people of varying linguistic level and intellectual ability: 61.9% (n = 65) of the sample were able to be interviewed, fully adequate clinical interviews being obtained with a group of 38 people whose mean IQ was only 39. In the remaining 38.1% (n = 40), diagnosis relied exclusively on informant data. Overall, the combination of subject and informant data was essential for sensitive case detection.

The recent development of new neuroleptics that differ from the conventional neuroleptics in both mechanism of action and side-effects profile has introduced problems in their clinical assessment, and highlighted ongoing issues in the design and methodology of clinical trials. These issues are broadly grouped and discussed as follows: sampling problems and selection of patients; design issues; problems in measurement; ensuring compliance; recognition of extrapharmacological issues; and statistical models. For patients to benefit from the development of new neuroleptics, clinical settings have to be prepared for testing their efficacy and safety without too much delay in well designed clinical trials.