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.

Bereavement studies which have correlated mental illness and other pathology with the recent or past deaths of parents have relied on the subject's memory for ascertaining parent death dates. Data given by subjects can be wrong, because of faulty recollection or deliberate misinformation given to conceal something felt to be shameful, such as illegitimacy.

In this study an attempt was made to relate personality as measured by the Middlesex Hospital Questionnaire (Crown and Crisp, 1966, 1970) to selected psychosocial characteristics of undergraduates in residence, the majority of whom were between 18 and 22 years of age. Individual questionnaires were sent out. Just under 50 per cent of the questionnaires were returned, and the present analysis is based on this sample.

It is widely believed that knowledge of an adult patient's childhood is of great assistance in understanding the development of his illness. It has been thought that with advances in the understanding of psychogenesis of illnesses, where this is a major pathogenetic mechanism, it would eventually be possible to predict specifically who will develop which particular adult illness; a further hope would be that these adult illnesses could then be prevented.

The association between renal papillary necrosis and prolonged ingestion of compound analgesics containing aspirin and phenacetin, has been widely reported (5, 6, 11, 13, 17, 19, 20, 24, 42). Although formerly thought to occur mainly in Switzerland, Scandinavia and Australia, analgesic nephropathy is now being increasingly reported in Britain (3, 26, 36), and in particular in Western Scotland (33). In the past seven years over 100 cases have been seen in the renal unit of the Western Infirmary, Glasgow, and, of these 42 have died in uraemia.

Children who are rejected give a clinical impression of making interpersonal relationships with difficulty. Wolberg (1944) described the consequences of parental rejection as depending upon the age of the child at the time of the rejection, the manner in which frustration was imposed by the parents, the nature and extent of compensatory gratification from others, and the success or failure of spontaneous reparative attempts on the part of the child to establish accepting relationships. Earlier studies of the child's reaction to rejection were marred by the tendency to define rejection too loosely, so that both conscious and unconscious forms were included as well as more frequent ambivalent parental attitudes, with a resultant wide scatter in the form of the children's responses. However, it has been shown by comparison with accepted children that the rejected child is uncommunicative, rebellious, less friendly, and bewildered about life (Symonds, 1938). Rejected children have been noted to be hypersensitive, and it has been speculated that this stems from feelings of insecurity and of not belonging to a permanent setting (Childers, 1935). The types of reaction to rejection were sub-divided into two broad groups—aggressive and submissive (Newell, 1934). Aggressive behaviour, including rebelliousness, disobedience, temper tantrums, quarrelsomeness, stealing and truancy occurred when the parental handling was consistently hostile; while submissive behaviour, including shyness, seclusiveness, cravings for attention, occurred more frequently when the parental behaviour was consistently over-protective (Newell, 1936). The aggressive response to hostile rejection was confirmed by Wolberg, who also thought that the symptoms of delinquency, truancy, enuresis and frustration intolerance should be interpreted in the larger framework of the child's attitudes towards himself and the world.

Reports on adrenocortical function in mental illness have been conflicting, and there has been a failure to replicate results, especially with plasma Cortisol measurements (Gibbons, 1968; Segraves, 1970; and Franzen, 1971). Also, the study of particular diagnostic categories of patients appears to introduce a sampling bias, whilst isolated measurements usually fail to assess hypothalamo-pituitaryadrenal function. We have therefore undertaken a blind assessment study of the nyctohemeral rhythm of plasma Cortisol in Nigerian inmates of the Aro Neuropsychiatric Hospital and Lantoro Institution in Abeokuta, which operate respectively as open and closed treatment centres (Asuni, 1967).

The aim of the study was to determine whether transsexual and homosexual males differ in their autonomic responses to erotic film sequences.

This paper draws attention to an increase in the number of cases of anorexia nervosa presenting at a University Student Health Centre in the last few years.

In attempting to resolve the issue of the relative importance of environmental and genetic factors in mental illness migration studies have been inconclusive (Dohrenwend and Dohrenwend, 1969). Among West Indian immigrants an increased incidence of mental disorder as compared to the native population and the population at home has been suggested (Hemsi, 1967). Other workers have attached great importance to environmental factors in explaining the atypical picture of West Indian mental illness (Gordon, 1965; Tewfik and Okasha, 1965).

There is an increasing use of psychological tests designed to measure anxiety in both psychological and psychiatric research. Yet the theoretical bases upon which the various questionnaires have been constructed in relation to their practical application remain less than clear. For example, the Taylor Manifest Anxiety Scale (TMAS) (Taylor, 1955), was developed from the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory as a more specific measure of manifest anxiety. The TMAS has repeatedly been shown to correlate highly significantly with the neuroticism score of the Eysenck Personality Inventory (EPI) (Eysenck and Eysenck, 1964). The EPI is purported to measure personality in a general way in two dimensions, one of neuroticism and the other of extraversion-introversion. The association between these two tests, therefore, suggests that either both relate to a general personality variable of emotional instability, or they both more specifically measure a tendency to experience anxiety. It could also mean that these two aspects, one measured by each test, involve a personality characteristic in common.