bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
MicroRNAs can regulate human APP levels
Authors: Patel Neha , Hoang David , Miller Nathan , Ansaloni Sara , Huang Qihong , Rogers Jack T , Lee Jeremy C , Saunders Aleister J
Published: August 2008

A number of studies have shown that increased APP levels, resulting from either a genomic locus duplication or alteration in APP regulatory sequences, can lead to development of early-onset dementias, including Alzheimer's disease (AD). Therefore, understanding how APP levels are regulated could provide valuable insight into the genetic basis of AD and illuminate novel therapeutic avenues for AD. Here we test the hypothesis that APP protein levels can be regulated by miRNAs, evolutionarily conserved small noncoding RNA molecules that play an important role in regulating gene expression. Utilizing human cell lines, we demonstrate that miRNAs hsa-mir-106a and hsa-mir-520c bind to their predicted target sequences in the APP 3'UTR and negatively regulate reporter gene expression. Over-expression of these miRNAs, but not control miRNAs, results in translational repression of APP mRNA and significantly reduces APP protein levels. These results are the first to demonstrate that levels of human APP can be regulated by miRNAs.
The Application of Cybernetics to Psychiatry
Authors: Ashby W. Ross
Published: August 2008

At the moment, cybernetics cannot point to any established triumph for, as a science, it is very young and is being applied to psychiatry in few laboratories. Nevertheless, I hope to show that there are good reasons for thinking that its relation to psychiatry is close, and that its application will eventually yield a rich harvest.
The Significance of Amino-Acids in Neuro-Psychiatric Diseases
Authors: Reitman F. , Hulme W. , Thomas B.
Published: August 2008

The relationship of neuro-psychiatric disorders to electro-physiology and biochemistry has a vast literature, review of which is not within the scope of this preliminary report. The report itself concerns a study of an aspect of this relationship based on 30 unselected neuro-psychiatric cases. Each case had an electroencephalographic (E.E.G.) and a cerebrospinal fluid (C.S.F.) investigation, the latter with reference to the presence of amino-acids.
Personality Structure in Psychotics by Factorization of Objective Clinical Tests
Authors: Cattell R. B. , Dubin S. S. , Saunders D. R.
Published: August 2008

To research workers in personality measurement the advance of routine testing procedures in clinical psychology has seemed peculiarly sluggish. Whereas solid theoretical foundations have been found for an account of the normal personality structure in factor analytic terms (5, 6, 7) and a rich variety of new tests has been created (8, 9, 14), the clinicians have confined themselves to one or two “gadget” tests, conceived with no more explicit relation to personality structure than a patent medicine has to modern physiological principles. The present research aims to bring factor structure measurement in a clinical population into relation with that found in normals and to provide a first, reproducible, test battery covering at least a dozen factors for use in clinics able to give sufficient time for valid and reliable measures of the primary personality dimensions.
The Early History of Psycho-Analysis
Authors: Jones Ernest
Published: August 2008

It is rare for someone at my time of life to be in a position to make really original contributions to knowledge, though it does occasionally happen. More often we feel that we have something to offer that is generally called the “wisdom of experience,” but it is a gift that a younger generation is apt to look at askance. There is, however, one field in which old age has an undisputed prerogative, and that is in being able to recall happenings in which younger people could have had no share. I propose to-day to confine myself to this modest claim and I shall be content if the illustrating of it arouses some interest in you.
Mysoline in Epilepsy: A Comparison with Older Methods of Treatment
Authors: Wilson William E. J. , Hodgson Oliver E. F.
Published: August 2008

The purpose of this paper is to report on a small series of cases treated with mysoline (5-phenyl-5-ethyl-hexahydropyrimidine-4:6-dione) and to contrast the results with those obtained with the established anticonvulsants phenobarbitone and soluble phenytoin.
Further Psychometric Evaluation of the Effect of Mephenesin on Anxiety
Authors: Mendenhall John H. , Ewing John A.
Published: August 2008

In a previous article (Ewing and Mendenhall, 1953) we reported the results of an experimental investigation devised to test the effects of mephenesin on anxiety. Rigid controls were employed, involving the use of inert tablets for comparison purposes, as well as other safeguards to eliminate subjective factors on the part of the examiners. Using the Digit Span test-retest as an index of anxiety, it was found that no statistically significant diminution of anxiety was obtained with doses of up to 2.0 gm. mephenesin orally.
Anterior Cingulectomy in Schizophrenia and Other Psychotic Disorders: Clinical Results
Authors: Tow P. Macdonald , Armstrong R. W.
Published: August 2008

Recent interest in the surgical alleviation of mental disorders has centred in the trial of new and different operations. Fairly early in the development of the subject Freeman and Watts (1944) themselves reported the fairly constant observation that under local anaesthesia gross mental change did not occur until certain stab incisions had been made deep in the infero-medial quadrants. Marked mental change, with confusion, unresponsiveness and disorientation, seemed to occur on section of a small bundle of fibres located interiorly close to the midline. Most of the modifications of Moniz's original procedure have, however, been made on an essentially empirical basis.
The Twenty-Eighth Maudsley Lecture: Medicine and the Law
Authors: Jowitt Earl
Published: August 2008

I was asked in the early months of 1952 to deliver this lecture towards the end of 1953. Of course I realized that it was a great honour to be asked, for I knew something of the work of the late Dr. Maudsley, and I was aware of the immense contribution he had made in the treatment of the insane.
Body-Sway Suggestibility and Neurosis
Authors: Ingham J. G.
Published: August 2008

I—The Problem. II—Method: (i) General Outline; (ii) Apparatus; (iii) Test procedure. III—Subjects. IV—Results: (i) Correction for arbitrary zero; (ii) Analysis. V—Discussion. VI—Summary. References.
Some Factors Affecting Reaction Times to Auditory Stimuli in Mental Patients
Authors: Hall K. R. L. , Stride E.
Published: August 2008

A number of studies on reaction time (R.T.) latency to visual and auditory stimuli in psychotic patients has been reported since the first investigations on the personal equation were carried out. The general trends from the work up to 1943 are well summarized by Hunt (1944), while Granger's (1953) review of “Personality and visual perception” contains a summary of the studies on R.T. to visual stimuli.
Three Cases of Psychosis Among the Eskimos
Authors: Teicher Morton I.
Published: August 2008

The study of actual instances of psychosis among non-literate peoples can enhance our understanding of the relationship between mental illness and the society in which it occurs. Analysis of case histories may enable us to see how social, biological and psychological factors reciprocally influence each other to produce mental disease. Some light may be thrown on the question whether or not there is a common nucleus of aberration which is universally manifested.
The Effect of Electro-Convulsive Therapy on the Psycho-Galvanic Response
Authors: Bassett M. , Ashby W. Ross
Published: August 2008

Though electro-convulsive therapy (E.C.T.) is one of our most useful treatments, its mode of action is still largely unknown, and this ignorance is preventing us from making it more successful and more widely applicable. Among its possible modes of action is the possibility of its having some “activating” action on the basal, and more particularly on the hypothalamic, structures. Such activation might be expected to show in the psycho-galvanic response (P.G.R.), and we have therefore investigated something of the relationship between them. Many of the facts that would justify this investigation need not be given here as they have been reviewed in previous publications (Ashby and Bassett, 1950; Ashby, 1952(b)).
A Rating Scale Developed for Use in Clinical Psychiatric Investigations
Authors: Monro A. B.
Published: August 2008

The impulse to attempt this study arose from difficulties encountered in the process of trying to demonstrate the efficacy or inadequacy of various methods of psychiatric treatment (Monro, 1950; and Monro and Conitzer, 1950). The problem which arose was that of matching groups, whose composition necessitated a struggle with diagnostic and prognostic criteria difficult to define and still more difficult to secure agreement about. The chief trouble derived from the fact that the systems of classification in normal psychiatric use had their roots in the past, when the cases were dealt with at a more advanced stage, or were of a more serious nature, than many which are today seen in out-patient clinics and mental hospitals. In the search for a more adequate system of classifying recent and therapeutically promising cases, the work of Cattell (1946) suggested a possible method of advance. It seemed sound to hope that the application of modern psychological techniques to psychiatric problems would be as useful as past applications of the principles of physiology and pathology to clinical medicine.
Clinical Signs, Diagnosis and Prognosis in the Functional Psychoses
Authors: Harris Arthur , Norris Vera
Published: August 2008

In a previous enquiry the prognostic significance of diverse aspects of the functional psychoses was examined (Harris and Lubin, 1952; Harris and Norris, in press). Prognosis was evaluated in terms of total length of stay in a mental hospital over a follow-up period of 18 years. Each patient was assigned to one of three major diagnostic groups (schizophrenia, affective psychosis or atypical psychosis), the diagnosis being based on Kraepelinian and Bleulerian criteria. The diagnosis was made by one of the authors (A.H.) on the evidence of 20-year-old case notes written by a large number of different psychiatrists. In this investigation the same author himself examined all the patients included in the series. We felt it would be interesting to compare the predictive value of diagnoses made by the rough and ready method of the earlier survey with that of those made by a detailed examination of the patients concerned, as in the present survey. For reasons previously stated (Harris and Norris, 1954) we feel that only certified patients admitted in the second period are comparable with the types of cases admitted in 1930. If a diagnosis of schizophrenia is held to connote an unfavourable and the remaining categories a favourable outcome then in the first series 60 per cent. of the patients were correctly classified while in the second series 58 per cent. of the certified patients were assigned to their correct diagnostic group. This difference is not significant. Thus it would appear that a more sophisticated application of Bleulerian methods of diagnosis does not necessarily give rise to more reliable evaluation of prognosis. Accordingly we have attempted to dissect these three diagnostic categories to determine whether any of the components show prognostic significance. For this purpose we took the second series because for these patients there were available detailed clinical descriptions made by one of the authors (A.H.) in the observation ward of a general hospital, prior to the patient's transfer to a mental hospital. Unfortunately 13 of the case notes containing these detailed clinical descriptions had been lost, so that we could only use 187 patients out of the total of 200. They were first admitted to hospital in the period May, 1940 to May, 1942 and were followed-up for the next 10 years. The result of the analysis is set out in the table.
A Method of Measuring Spontaneous Movements by Time-Sampling Motion Pictures
Authors: Sainsbury Peter
Published: August 2008

In the course of planning a research into spontaneous movements (expressive movements and disorders of involuntary movement, such as tics), it was essential to devise some means whereby these forms of motor behaviour might be objectively measured. The purpose of this paper is to describe one of our methods of doing this by the use of motion pictures, and to demonstrate experimentally the reliability and validity of a method which, it is believed, may prove to have a wider application.
Disorientation for Age
Authors: Mowbray R. M.
Published: August 2008

This note is intended to supplement Professor Zangwill's communication (1953) under this title in the centenary number of this journal, in which “disorientation for age” as described by Weinstein and Kahn (1950 and 1951) is illustrated as persistent and stable in two cases of alcoholic Korsakov psychosis.
Depersonalization
Authors: Ackner Brian
Published: August 2008

Depersonalization remains a subject whose fascination for psychiatric investigators shows no sign of waning. That this is so may partly be due to the striking nature of the symptomatology, though for many the philosophical problems it poses cannot fail to exercise much thought (Lewis, 1949). Numerous aetiologies have been advanced, but there exists no common agreement, even amongst those of similar psychiatric discipline, as to the origin of the condition.
Depersonalization
Authors: Ackner Brian
Published: August 2008

In an earlier paper (Ackner, 1954) various aetiological approaches to the problem of depersonalization were examined and no common agreement was found. The salient phenomena of depersonalization were examined and found to be so lacking in precision that no clear-cut boundaries could be considered to exist. This explained the lack of any truly adequate definition of depersonalization and suggested that some of the past disagreements had been the result of failure to make explicit the phenomena under discussion.
Psychopathic Personality and Social Responsibility
Authors: Kennedy Alexander
Published: August 2008

Since there is little general agreement either on the nature of psychopathic personalities or on how to deal with the problems within organized society which their behaviour creates, we are justified in any attempt to present these problems in a new light and to examine the impact of recent work upon them. There is, moreover, an urgent need to clarify our own ideas on the subject in the hope that we can present them in practical form to those social agencies who so frequently meet with the psychopath as a perplexing hindrance to the smooth working of the State's affairs, whether in the schools, the courts, in industry, in the services or in any part of our national life in which planned co-operation is desirable. The psychopathic misfit for whom the increasing complexity of society has allowed no place, and for whom as yet science has found no certain remedy, often manifests his disability at least as much in a disorder of citizenship as in one of personal adjustment, and in no field of our work are we so constantly reminded that it is impossible to consider the patient in isolation from the milieu in which he must live. While the brain is a part, and the controlling, communicating part of the somatic mechanism, the concept of the mind of an individual is not so confined. In that the individual is a member of a group, part of his mental life belongs to that group and plays a part in forming its characteristics. In favourable circumstances this contribution is repaid by the guidance and support which membership of a group can provide. When an individual is so constituted that he is without the inward mechanisms necessary for the efficient working of this process of interchange, the result may be unhappiness for him or loss of harmony in the group. Thus, although it is to medical science that the appeal for an explanation or a remedy is most often made, the psychopathic personality is a responsibility which we must always share with the social sciences. Since the defect of personality is usually a constitutional one, the problems it creates are as likely to be solved by manipulation of the environment of the psychopath than by any effort to change his spots. This is not to say that the leopard in our kraal is not to be rendered more tame, or that he cannot be afforded the help of psychotherapeutic cosmetics, so long as the therapist in his preoccupation with the spots does not forget the savage heart that lies beneath them.
An Experimental Study of the Inheritance of Intelligence
Authors: Blewett D. B.
Published: August 2008

Although the development of factor analysis has led, at least operationally, to more precise description of the field of human cognition, controversy as to the nature of intelligence has not ended, although there has been a marked narrowing of the differences between extremes of view. On the one hand, the monarcheal, or single factor idea, has been superseded by Spearman's two factor theory which has in turn been extended to the consideration of group factors. On the other hand, the multifactorial approach has been narrowed and refined by Thurstonian Multiple Factor Analysis. The primary Mental Abilities described by this method were found to be intercorrelated giving rise to a second order factor which Thurstone has suggested, may be not unlike Spearman's “g”. Despite this basic disagreement as to the nature of the variable under consideration, results obtained have led investigators to almost complete agreement that what they have measured as intelligence is largely genetically determined.
Measurable Effects of Group Psychotherapy with Defective Delinquents
Authors: Yonge K. A. , O'Connor N.
Published: August 2008

It is generally accepted that any appreciable lack of intelligence precludes the possibility of successful psychological treatment along verbal lines. It is also widely believed that individuals with a lifelong character disorder, commonly described as “psychopathic”, whatever their degree of intelligence, are relatively inaccessible or unresponsive to group or individual psychotherapy. It follows that in individuals where intellectual defect is coupled with psychopathic character, the difficulties of psychotherapy are multiplied. A review of the literature supports this general impression.
Experimental Studies of a Perceptual Anomaly
Authors: Yates A. J.
Published: August 2008

This is the fourth of a series of articles reporting an investigation into the Block Design Rotation Effect. This effect was first observed in some patients while they were doing the Goldstein Block Design Test, in which the subject has to reproduce patterns with the aid of coloured cubes. Some patients, while completing the designs correctly, would leave the completed pattern in a rotated position without apparently being aware of this (2). Such rotation frequently reached 45° (Illustration 1) but rarely exceeded this amount.
Types of Synaesthesia
Authors: Simpson Lorna , McKellar Peter
Published: August 2008

Synaesthesia is defined by Vernon (1937) as a phenomenon in which “a stimulus presented in one mode seems to call up imagery of another mode as readily as that of its own”. The discovery of synaesthesia has sometimes been wrongly attributed to Galton. Galton (1883) certainly describes instances, but reports on earlier descriptions, for example those published in 1881 by Bleuler and Lehmann.
The Effect of Convulsive Therapy on Plasma Adrenaline and Noradrenaline
Authors: Weil-Malherbe H.
Published: August 2008

It is generally assumed that an activation of the sympathetic system plays an important part in the therapeutic efficacy of convulsive treatments, be it as an unspecific result of stress or owing to a more circumscribed stimulation of specific centres in the hypothalamus and elsewhere. Such an effect has been postulated on the basis of various changes observed after convulsions, such as a rise in blood pressure (Accornero, 1940; Bini and Puddu, 1940; Piette, 1950), hyperglycaemia (Castelluci, 1940; Kessler and Gellhorn, 1941), leucocytosis and lymphocytosis (Gellhorn and Frank, 1948, 1949; Michael, 1949) and eosinopenia (Altschule, Parkhurst and Tillotson, 1949). Pupillary dilatation and contraction of the nictitating membrane have been described in cats (Gellhorn and Darrow, 1939). More direct evidence is provided by the finding that the adrenaline stores of the adrenal medulla are decreased after electrically produced convulsions (Pekkarinen, Hakala and Hyppönen, 1952).
Observations on the Effect of Largactil in Psychiatric Illness
Authors: Baker A. A.
Published: August 2008

Largactil is one of the phenothiazine group of compounds. It is, therefore, related to promethazine (phenergan) and diethazine (diparcol). It is also known as R.P. 4560 and chlorpromazine. It has been used on the Continent in psychiatric cases since 1951, because of the relaxation and calm it produces. It has been on trial at Netherne Hospital since 1953 and 80 patients have received this treatment.
The Nature and Treatment of Delirium Tremens and Allied Conditions
Authors: Armstrong R. W. , Gould Jonathan
Published: August 2008

Delirium tremens and toxi-infective delirium are not now common diseases, but are still encountered often enough for their treatment to present problems. Delirium tremens is a medical emergency and intercurrent pneumonia is a serious complication, more likely to occur if the patient's over-activity persists. Toxi-infective delirium is less frequently accompanied by crude over-activity, but this may be a source of significant added strain in the severely ill patient, in whom it is more likely to occur. The standard treatment for delirium tremens is by sedation, and the giving of fluids and glucose. Paraldehyde seems to be the drug of choice. Opinion is divided on whether it is advisable to continue to give moderate amounts of alcohol. Sedation is the standard treatment in toxi-infective delirium, and here barbiturates tend to be used.
The Role of Nicotinic Acid (Niacin) in Mental Health and Disease
Authors: Gregory Ian
Published: August 2008

Shortly before the end of the last century, Eijkman observed that fowl receiving a diet of polished rice developed a disease which he believed to be of the same nature as human beri-beri. It was subsequently shown that this condition in fowl (polyneuritis gallinarum), and beri-beri in man, could both be cured by the addition to the diet of rice polishings or an extract prepared from them. In 1911, Funk obtained from rice polishings a crystalline substance capable of preventing or curing beri-beri, which he named “vitamine” in view of its evident importance to life, and in the erroneous belief that it had the chemical structure of an amine. Four years later, McCollum and Davis demonstrated that at least two such dietary factors were necessary for growth in rats—“fat-soluble A” and “water-soluble B”. Before long it was recognized that the latter factor had the properties of the antineuritic “vitamine“, and a number of similar organic compounds were discovered, which were essential constituents of the diet in minute quantities, and for which the general term “vitamin”, was agreed upon. For several years it was assumed that water-soluble vitamin B (contained in yeast, rice polish, liver, etc.) was a single entity, but in 1919 Mitchell noted that certain vegetables rich in the antineuritic principle had little power to promote growth, and in 1926 two fractions were distinguished, each essential for growth—thermolabile vitaminB1, containing the antineuritic principle (thiamin), and thermostable vitamin B2.
The Ganser State
Authors: Goldin S. , Macdonald J. E.
Published: August 2008

The aim of this paper is threefold:

(i)

To review critically the literature on the Ganser State and clarify its meaning.

(ii)

To provide a case illustration with some hitherto unreported features.

(iii)

To present psychological test results, which has not previously been done in a case of this kind.
Affective Disorders Arising in the Senium
Authors: Kay D. W. K. , Roth Martin , Hopkins Barbara
Published: August 2008

The importance of the psychoses of later life has been demonstrated by Cook, Dax and Maclay (1952), who found that 15 per cent. of patients admitted to mental hospitals in this country were aged 65 or over. Our own corresponding figure (derived from a Mental Hospital serving a county with a mixed rural and residential area) is 20 per cent. for the year 1953. Furthermore, it has been shown by Roth (1955) that about one-half of all admissions aged 60 and over are suffering from affective disturbances, and that of these over one-half have had no psychiatric illness before that age. Robertson and Brown (1953) report a similar proportion with late onset in their material.
Shifting of Set and Goal Orientation in Schizophrenia
Authors: Huston Paul E. , Cohen Bertram D. , Senf Rita
Published: August 2008

One of the important schizophrenic symptoms listed by Bleuler (1950) is a disturbance in attention. Bleuler viewed the attention disturbance as a complex phenomenon which was also related to disturbances in thinking and affect, and possibly to individual emotional complexes.
The Effect of Chlorpromazine (“Largactil”) on Glucose Tolerance
Authors: Charatan F. B. E. , Bartlett N. G.
Published: August 2008

The use of chlorpromazine is now firmly established in psychiatry (Delay et al., 1952; Arnold et al., 1953; Staehelin and Kielholtz, 1953; Anton-Stephens, 1954; Elkes and Elkes, 1954; Charatan, 1954). A hyperglycaemic effect in man has already been reported (Dobkin et al., 1954), and might be of importance if, for example, in schizophrenia, chlorpromazine was combined with insulin coma treatment. The following investigation was carried out to study the effect of chlorpromazine on glucose tolerance.
Treatment of Childhood Schizophrenia
Authors: Eickhoff Louise F. W.
Published: August 2008

One and a half years after she had been excluded from school a little girl of six and a half years was being watched by me as she took her part in the school assembly and entered into the normal activities of the A stream of her class. Some two months later the head teacher telephoned us excitedly to say that this same child had put up her hand in the full school assembly and answered the question correctly. There is perhaps little remarkable in this until I add that this child, Gwen, in October, 1952, was diagnosed as a schizophrenic and has, with two others, been treated along the lines indicated in a previous paper.∗
The Twenty-Ninth Maudsley Lecture: The Role of the Temporal Cortex in Certain Psychical Phenomena
Authors: Penfield Wilder
Published: August 2008

The Founder of this lecture series was described with consummate skill by Professor Aubrey Lewis in the Twenty-fifth Maudsley Lecture, before this Association. Henry Maudsley was a clinician who turned again and again to the problem I shall approach today. He even wrote a monograph under the daring title of “The Physiology and Pathology of the Mind”.
An Investigation of Huntington's Chorea in Victoria
Authors: Brothers C. R. D. , Meadows A. W.
Published: August 2008

In making an investigation of Huntington's Chorea in the State of Victoria, we have, so far, been able to collect 150 indisputable cases of this disease, and others. This figure includes 83 deceased, and 57 living. Out of a total of 74, who were certified to mental hospitals, 26 are still either in hospital or on trial leave. This represents ·34 per cent. of the total present mental hospital population. As regards sex distribution, our figures indicate that there were 68 females as compared with 72 males.
Prolonged Sleep Treatment in Mental Disorders (Some New Psychopharmacological Considerations)
Authors: Azima H.
Published: August 2008

Sleep as a method of controlling mental derangements dates to antiquity. According to Celsus sleep restores mental equilibrium: “but certainly for all so affected sleep is both difficult and especially necessary; for under it many get well …” (13). Griesinger in 1861 was the first to use chloroform as a sleep-inducing agent in mania and melancholia (21). The advent of bromides and barbiturates enhanced further investigation, and early in this century sleep treatment was relatively well systematized by Wolfin 1901 (40), Trend in 1903 (39), and by Kläsi in 1922 (25). This paper will not attempt to review the literature on sleep, for these findings have been outlined in papers by Palmer (32, 33), Baer (7), Ey (18), and recently in a documented book by Angel (2). The purpose of this paper is to present (1) a method of prolonged sleep treatment using the new inhibitory substance chlorpromazine (Largactil), in combination with different barbiturates in an attempt to provoke a sleep pattern as similar as possible to normal sleep, in contrast to deep unconsciousness advocated previously (14, 32); (2) to discuss underlying theories of sleep treatment, and propose some new formulations; (3) to suggest future use and investigation of the treatment; and (4) to bring to the attention of American psychiatrists a treatment which holds an eminent position in Europe, particularly in the U.S.S.R. where sleep therapy appears to be the only officially accepted form of treatment in mental illnesses.
The Pathology of Acute Infantile Cerebral Diplegia
Authors: Woolf A. L.
Published: August 2008

In this paper, the term Acute Infantile Cerebral Diplegia has been used to denote a group of cases in which a spastic paralysis, affecting principally the lower limbs, develops suddenly in infancy or childhood. The course of the disease is remarkably uniform in the majority of cases, thereby suggesting a common pathogenesis.
Sodium Amytal and Eyelid Conditioning
Authors: Franks C. M. , Laverty S. G.
Published: August 2008

Sodium amytal has long been regarded as a physiologically inhibiting drug. It is widely used in clinical practice as a sedative and sleep-producing drug, although all of its precise pharmacological effects are not definitely established. It has also been suggested that sodium amytal produces an increase in extra-version, as manifest by an increase in communicativeness, etc. Thus Lindemann (1932) found that after receiving amytal, normal subjects report feeling of increased well-being, co-operativeness, serenity and friendship. Sodium amytal is also used for the reduction of manifest anxiety. Sargant and Slater (1954) cite many examples of its use for this purpose with neurotic subjects; they describe it as useful for “deconditioning to situations likely to produce anxiety”. Masserman (1938) reports that amytal apparently reduces the sympathetic activity in cats which normally results from faradic stimulation from the hypothalamus. It has also been shown to abolish conditioned fear responses in kittens (Bailey and Miller, 1952).

The literature related to conditioning is enormous. Hilgard and Marquis (1940) alone have a 973 item reference list at the end of their book. It has been established that anxiety neurotics or anxious subjects condition better than normals (e.g. Welch and Kubis, 1947a, 1947b; Taylor, 1951; Spence and Taylor, 1953; Spence and Farber, 1953). In the terminology of Eysenck (1952, 1953), in which introversion–extraversion and neuroticism are two orthogonal dimensions, anxiety neurotics are part of the groups known as Dysthymics, i.e. they have high scores on both the introversion end of the introversion–extraversion dimension and on the dimension of neuroticism. On the other hand hysterics and psychopaths have been shown to have high scores on the extraversion end of the introversion–extraversion dimension and on the dimension of neuroticism. Figure 1 will make this clear.
Irreversible Hypoglycaemic Coma in Islet-Cell Adenoma and in Schizophrenia
Authors: Parfitt D. N.
Published: August 2008

As an approach to the problem of schizophrenia it is proposed to compare the effects and after-effects of severe hypoglycaemia due mainly to islet-cell adenoma of the pancreas in otherwise healthy people with the effects and after-effects of severe hypoglycaemia therapeutically induced in schizophrenics.

The difficulties are plain. Personal experience of patients with functioning islet-cell adenoma is limited almost always to a few cases, whereas average experience of insulin coma treatment covers some hundreds of cases; moreover, there is little overlap of experience except in the post-mortem room or in the laboratory for morbid histology. During insulin treatment there is constant supervision by a trained staff, medical and nursing, so that serious developments can be met by immediate intravenous sugar and investigations are continual; with adenomata there is no observation until, perhaps, a general practitioner is called in about alarming symptoms of one kind or another and sometimes months or even years elapse before a patient gets into hospital, where the intensity of observation and even more so of investigation may exceed that available in mental hospitals. Insulin coma treatment has a more or less standard aim, to produce coma of increasing duration up to a maximum of something like an hour which is then repeated thirty times or more; dosage is built up with the greatest care. Adenomata produce conditions varying from the hardly serious to the fatal under the influence of an insulin dosage which is quite unknown.

This comparison is based chiefly on an analysis of 290 serial courses of insulin coma treatment given to schizophrenic patients at Holloway Sanatorium during the four years 1950 to 1953 inclusive, and on the 258 cases of islet-cell adenoma reported by Crain and Thorn (1949) and the 398 cases, all that could be traced up to that date and including the Crain and Thorn cases, analysed by Howard, Moss and Rhoads (1950). Many separate papers have been consulted for more detailed approaches and for extra information, although of course those published before 1950 were included in the reviews already mentioned. Despite the difficulties of this comparison, it can be shown that the similarities between the two groups follow expectation and are very strong indeed, so that the differences which emerge have at least possible significance.
Psychoendocrinology
Authors: Reiss M.
Published: August 2008

The last thirty years have witnessed the rise and fall of many theories and therapies on a supposed relationship between psychiatry and endocrinology, and perhaps the time is now ripe to weigh the evidence and attempt to draw at least tentative conclusions. A clear picture of an existing situation not only often leads to improved understanding but also to greater clarity of purpose.
A Prophylactic Approach to Child Psychiatry
Authors: Bolton Anne
Published: August 2008

It has long seemed apparent to workers in the child guidance field that many of their patients show evidence of longstanding emotional disturbance; either the symptoms now complained of have been present for many years, or there has been a history of symptoms earlier on which have disappeared only to be replaced by the existing ones. Some of these patients whose present condition may be almost intractable, might have been helped had they been treated at an earlier date, while recent work by Bowlby (1951) and others has emphasized how important are security and satisfactory emotional relationships in the early years for the establishment of a stable personality. Thus it appears that any prophylactic approach, aimed at reducing the incidence of emotional disturbance in older children, and it is hoped ultimately in adults, may need to be made very early in life.

Little has been published, apart from accounts of individual patients, of work on any series of very young children who were psychiatrically disturbed, particularly from a prophylactic point of view. Joseph (1948) has described some of the patients she has seen in a child guidance clinic attached to a child welfare centre, and Gillespie (1954) has compared the symptomatology of a series of pre-school children treated at Infant Welfare Centres with the preschool histories of older children treated in a child guidance clinic. She points out that the type of problem dealt with in the under-fives was seen in a high proportion of the earlier histories of those who needed treatment at a later age. The importance of early treatment for parents in the prevention of serious disturbance in the children has been emphasized by Fries (1946) by Jacobs (1949) and on a community scale by Caplan (1951). His experience in Infant Welfare Centres in Israel over a number of years has led him to concentrate on the treatment of cases where abnormal symptoms were not yet manifest, but where pathogenic relationships of the parents to the child were such that he felt that emotional difficulties in the child might later develop. In this country such a prophylactic approach is relatively unexplored, although the possibility of preventing mental ill health in children is one which has interested public health authorities for some time.
The Concept of Responsibility
Authors: MacDonald J. E.
Published: August 2008

“No man is an iland, intire of itselfe; every man is a peece of the Continent, a part of the Maine; if a Clod bee washed away by the Sea, Europe is the lesse, as well as if a Promontorie were, as well as if a Mannor of thy friends or of thine owne were: any mans death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankinde. And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.”—John Donne.
The Concentration of Adrenaline in Human Plasma and its Relation to Mental Activity
Authors: Weil-Malherbe H.
Published: August 2008

It is generally accepted that situations of danger, stress or emergency lead to an increased activity of the sympathetic system and to the discharge of adrenaline from the adrenal medulla. Until recently our knowledge was based, essentially, upon two lines of evidence; on the observation of effector organs and mechanisms, such as heart rate, blood pressure, width of skin capillaries, etc., and on the measurement of the adrenaline concentration in the suprarenals or the suprarenal veins, which contain comparatively large quantities. Lately, with the advent of more refined techniques, further methods have become available, which made it possible to estimate adrenaline in tissues other than the suprarenals, in urine and in peripheral blood. The last two methods are obviously of special importance for clinical studies.

In this paper work done in the writer's laboratory will be briefly reviewed. The first part deals with the development of a method for the estimation of adrenaline and noradrenaline in plasma and with experiments that were intended to establish the validity of the method. The concentration of adrenaline and noradrenaline, and the form of their occurrence, in plasma and CSF, will be discussed. In the second part results will be described, which suggest that there is a correlation of the blood-adrenaline level with mental activity.
Personality Changes After Rostral Leucotomy: a Comparison with Standard Prefrontal Leucotomy
Authors: Pippard John
Published: August 2008

“Standard” leucotomy in the plane of the coronal suture is undoubtedly an effective treatment for many cases of otherwise hopeless prognosis. The main objection to its use, resulting in many “modified” operations being devised, has been the occurrence of serious personality deficits afterwards. Ström-Olsen and Tow (1949) found that these handicapped nearly three-quarters of patients with “severe neurotic depression, obsessive-compulsive neurosis and chronic tense hypochondriasis”, and though 76 per cent. were relieved of illness only 8 per cent. were in full employment. Tow (1952) has repeated his concern at the serious damage inflicted on well-preserved personalities. Partridge (1950), who has given a full account of the personality changes after McKissock's (1943) “standard” leucotomy, detected some personality deficit in nearly every case of the 300 he investigated and suspected that intellectual impairment was present in all, though he could only be sure of it in a proportion. I have elsewhere (Pippard, 1955) reported the clinical results in 240 cases followed up 1½ to 5 years after rostral leucotomy by Mr. McKissock and this paper should be consulted for details of the operative techniques and scales used for rating the results.
The Detection of Psychological Vulnerability in Students
Authors: Davidson M. A. , Lee D. , Parnell R. W. , Spencer S. J. G.
Published: August 2008

Parnell (1951) reported that 76 men undergraduates at Oxford had lost a full term's residence on account of psychological ill health in the period of three years from 1 January, 1947 to 31 December, 1949. Psychological ill health had caused 52·5 per cent. of all prolonged absence through illness, a fact which emphasized the need for more detailed study of the causes and possibility of prevention of psychological disturbance. As an indication of minimal current prevalence of such disturbance, it may be reported that 59 Oxford students in need of psychiatric help were referred by their general practitioners to the Warneford and Park Hospitals in twelve months from 1 April, 1953 to 31 March, 1954: these figures take no account of the numbers treated elsewhere; but the evidence as a whole shows that, as found in 1951, mental upset is still the most important cause of ill health in Oxford students.

Information derived from a comparison of somatotype, electroencephalographic, psychological and psychiatric findings upon patients and healthy controls is summarized in this paper. It shows that, despite a probable bias in the controls, significant differences can be detected between the two samples. Some of these differences were sufficiently marked to form the basis for a simple heuristic method of detecting vulnerability.
Witchcraft As a Primitive Interpretation of Mental Disorder
Authors: Field M. J.
Published: August 2008

The following facts concerning West African witchcraft were observed and recorded by the present writer while working as an ethnologist in the Gold Coast. The writer had not, at that time, any psychiatric experience, but has since worked in British mental hospitals long enough for the facts to invest themselves with psychiatric significance.
The Significance of Abstract and Concrete Behaviour in Elderly Psychiatric Patients and Control Subjects
Authors: Hopkins Barbara , Post Felix
Published: August 2008

The recognition of a well-established psychosis due to arteriosclerotic or senile brain changes rarely presents any difficulty. However, increasing numbers of elderly people are seen with affective, paranoid, or neurotic manifestations, and it is sometimes very difficult to decide whether their symptoms present prodromata of an organic psychosis, or whether in the absence of degenerative brain disease they are occasioned by a variety of endogenous and environmental causes leading to a “functional” psychiatric illness.
The Reliability of Psychiatric, and the Validity of Psychological, Diagnoses
Authors: Foulds G. A.
Published: August 2008

In determining the diagnostic value of psychological tests the usual external criterion is the psychiatric diagnosis. This criterion has suffered a steady decline in prestige among both psychiatrists and psychologists. The following remarks by Noyes (1953) would be endorsed by many psychiatrists: “The principal value of classification is not in the categorizing of a disease entity but in quickly eliminating those considerations which will be least useful in understanding the patient and in directing attention to those which are likely to be relevant. Except in organic disorders a classificatory diagnosis is less important than a psychodynamic study of the personality. The psychiatrist should be interested in processes, not in labels … we should endeavour not so much to fit the symptoms into a classificatory scheme as to understand the sick person in terms of his life experience.”
Intellectual and Rorschach Test Performances of a Group of Senile Dementia Patients and of a Group of Elderly Depressives
Authors: Orme J. E.
Published: August 2008

Owing to the increase in the expectancy of life, there is an increase in the incidence of aged people suffering from mental illness who are admitted to hospital. This has stimulated the paying of special attention to the problems of differential diagnosis in order to avoid lengthy hospitalization wherever possible. Recent studies have tended to emphasize the frequency of affective disorders as well as senile dementia in aged patients. It is consequently important to distinguish the former group because of the greater possibilities of treatment there than in senile dementia. A recent paper (O'Connell, 1954) has been concerned with the study of case material of patients over the age of sixty admitted to this hospital. The present study is largely based on material obtained from patients drawn from O'Connell's sample, but also includes cases with longer hospitalization.
A Case of Childhood Pellagra with Psychosis
Authors: Hersov L. A.
Published: August 2008

Pellagra is a rare disease in Great Britain. The majority of cases occur among patients in mental hospitals and institutions (Stannus and Gibbons, 1934), and more recently it has been described as an accompaniment or complication of a chronic psychosis (Hardwick, 1946). Sporadic cases do arise in the general population (Davis and Hinden, 1941), but it is likely that in many instances the disease goes unrecognized (Deeny, 1942). Pellagra is particularly uncommon in British children (Greenfield and Holmes, 1939), although observers in areas where the disease is rife are of the opinion that it is found more frequently in children than in adults (Weston and Weston, 1948).

Mental symptoms are frequent in pellagra and may, in fact, precede the other manifestations (Sydenstricker, 1943). Severe psychoses occur in untreated cases and depressive, manic and paranoid reactions have been described (Hardwick, 1946). In children, however, symptoms are usually mild and mania or delirium is not often present (Holt and Mcintosh, 1953); therefore this case of pellagra with a psychotic reaction in a 10-year-old English schoolboy may be of interest.
Clinical Blood-Pressure in Anxiety
Authors: Rudolf G. De M.
Published: August 2008

That variations of blood-pressure are found in states of emotion is commonplace knowledge; that rises may take place with temporary fear and anxiety is also well known, but that anxiety occurs with a reduced or normal blood-pressure is not perhaps so well appreciated.

The purpose of the present investigation was to determine whether the blood-pressure remains high when the patient with anxiety is in a state of overt placidity and calmness.
The Relation Between Neurosis and Psychosis an Analysis of Symptoms and Past History of 819 Psychotics and Neurotics
Authors: Trouton D. S. , Maxwell A. E.
Published: August 2008

While it is usual among psychiatrists to express dissatisfaction with psychiatric classification and its problems it is by no means unusual for their psychological colleagues to advocate factor analysis as an effective technique for resolving such problems. For example, Burt (1954) describes factor analysis as “essentially a statistical device for securing the best available scheme of classification”. Yet the problems and the device tend to remain apart, the former becoming intensified, the latter undergoing continued improvements. Twenty-five years ago T. V. Moore (1930) demonstrated that the application of factor analysis to the study of psychiatric disorders was feasible, and more recent work, especially that of Eysenck (e.g. 1947) has impressively shown its fruitfulness. That some clinicians remain sceptical of the claims made for these techniques is, in part, due to the infrequency with which factorial studies bearing on psychiatry have been pursued far enough for their implications to be tested and the findings integrated with those established by other scientific methods. This deficiency may be attributable to the fact that large scale programme research (Eysenck, 1953) is an almost essential condition, if this is to be achieved.