Multivariate analyses are an aid to, not a substitute for critical thinking in the area of data analysis. Meaningful results can only be produced by these methods if careful consideration is given to questions of sample size, variable type, variable distribution etc., and accusations of subjectivity in interpretation can only be overcome by replication.

The computer revolution has produced many problems for statisticians, not least of which is the ease with which experimenters may access packages of programs for multivariate analysis, and so bypass a ‘difficult’ (by which is meant one who will not do simply as he is told) statistician. Of course there are many abuses of univariate statistical methods. Here, however, the abuses are not likely to lead to such seriously misleading results as in the multivariate case.

Perhaps a major cause of the continuing misuse of statistical methods is the insistence of many journal editors in psychology and related areas, on articles being laced with multivariate analyses, and on encouraging the pedantic use of significance levels, i.e. the inevitable p < —, as if such inclusions lent an air of respectability to their journal which it might not otherwise have had. Research workers in these fields would be better encouraged to devote more time to an initial screening of their data using simple graphical techniques, to ensure that their data are at least approximately suitable for more complicated multivariate analyses.

In his original description of children with early infantile autism, Kanner (1943) commented that the parents were usually highly intelligent and that many were rather obsessive individuals who lacked real warmth. Subsequently he elaborated on these parental features (Kanner, 1949), and together with Eisenberg went on to suggest that autism was the result of an interaction between an innate ‘organic’ defect and a particular family environment (Eisenberg and Kanner, 1956; Eisenberg, 1957).

Last Autumn, the Institute of Psychiatry celebrated its jubilee, that is to say, the fiftieth anniversary of the recognition by the University of London of the Maudsley Hospital as one of its medical schools. Most suitably, the occasion was marked by our acting as hosts to the Royal College of Psychiatrists’ Quarterly Meeting, during which our Chairman, Lord Justice Ormrod, f.r.c.p., gave the College’s annual Maudsley Lecture.

The original aim of Industrial Therapy Units, which exist in most psychiatric hospitals, was to preserve or re-establish outside interests and standards by providing work of an industrial nature (Wadsworth, 1962), but often they merely offer the patient activity and occupation. The staff of the Industrial Therapy Unit at Clifton Hospital were concerned about some patients who benefited very little from attendance, and they devised a project to improve this. Qualitatively the patients appeared to benefit but the staff were unable to measure this. They therefore approached the Psychology Department, and a structured programme was designed with emphasis on measurement and control of variables. There was very little to be found in the literature on experiments in an Industrial Therapy setting (see references).

Psychiatric diagnosis in the elderly has been examined in order to extract the information which leads to later modification of the diagnosis. Initial diagnoses of neuroses and toxic states were least stable, 14 out of 29 changing to a different category. Information from relatives and further interviews contributed most to the modification of the initial diagnosis, though affective and neurotic syndromes were particularly susceptible to change resulting from conceptual differences, and dementia to change consequent on physical examination.

It is concluded that an adequate initial interview of a patient and his next of kin will achieve a diagnosiswhich iscorrectin itsmajor categoryon 95 per cent ofoccasions.

Psychiatric problems were assessed in two groups of adoptees by interviewing the adopting parents. One group of 59 adoptees, the ‘experimental’, were born of psychiatrically disturbed biological parents; the other group, the ‘control’ of 54 adoptees, had psychiatrically ‘normal’ biological parents. Both groups had been separated from biological parents at birth.

The incidence of psychiatric conditions requiring professional care was significantly higher in the experimentais than in the controls (37 per cent vs. 14 per cent). In the experimental group more males than females were disturbed (59 per cent vs. 30 per cent). Most of the excess of disordered males were diagnosed hyperactive. There was some evidence of correlation of the type of psychiatric diagnosis of the biological parent with that of the adoptee.

Mental and psychomotor speed scores were obtained for three affectively ill groups of bipolar depression, unipolar depression and bipolar mania, and three corresponding recovered groups.

Comparisons were made among ill groups, among recovered groups, and between ill and recovered groups for each illness type. The following conclusions were drawn:

1. 1. Though manic patients solve problems quicker than those of either depressed group, they do not differ much from normals.

2. 2. With stress to work faster, the patients in the two depressed groups can quicken their speed of work and bring it up to the level of the manic patients, even though the latter also increase their speed.

3. 3. On a psychomotor speed task, the bipolar depressives are significantly slower than the manics and the unipolar depressives, who do not differ. ‘Internal distraction’ causes a slight increase in speed in all three groups, with no significant difference, but ‘external distraction’ speeds up the bipolar groups and slows down the unipolar depressives, resulting in significant differences between the bipolars on the one hand and the unipolars on the other.

4. 4. All recovered groups perform at the same level on all measures.

5. 5. Comparison between ill and recovered groups seems to indicate that a manic illness does not affect mental or psychomotor speed significantly when tested objectively. Unipolar depression also does not seem to affect speed functions very significantly, but bipolar depression does decrease both mental and psychomotor speed significantly. Thus only bipolar depressive patients seem to show true retardation, and manic patients do not show the opposite of retardation.

Of five judges, three have answered in the negative and two in the affirmative the question put to them by the House of Lords in the Mordaunt case, namely whether the insanity of one of the parties in a divorce suit should preclude the other party from going on with this suit. Lady Mordaunt having been pronounced insane, the Divorce judge had decided that the insanity was a bar to the husband’s prosecution of his suit for divorce on the ground of adultery; and this ruling was confirmed by a majority of judges in the full Court. Sir Charles appealed to the House of Lords, which called in the assistance of the judges, who have illustrated their perplexity by delivering elaborate judgements on opposite sides of the question.

The basic controversy in criminology at present is that between the psychiatric school and the sociological school. Members of the latter school recognize that psychogenic factors must be taken into account in the explanation of criminal behaviour, and members of the psychiatric school have recognized the importance of social and cultural conditions. But there is disagreement on the extent to which ‘Personality’ and ‘Culture’ should be emphasized in criminological theories.

For the past decade there has been extensive interest in the hypothesized association between brain amine function and disturbances in mood (either depression or mania). The more influential theories have postulated that clinical depression is associated with a decrease in aminergic function (either norepinephrine, dopamine or serotonin) while mania is associated with increased activity of these amines. This essentially ‘bipolar’ approach has tended to dominate most studies in this area. Evidence supporting these theories has been extensively reviewed (11, 61, 70) and need not be detailed here.

The recommendations on postgraduate training made by the World Health Organization, the Nuffield Provincial Hospitals Trust and the Royal Medico-Psychological Association are examined in the light of modern concepts of educational objectives. In this country no well defined, specific, assessable and detailed objectives have yet been formulated for postgraduate training in psychiatry.

Premenstrual tension (PMT) has hitherto not been accurately defined. The term refers to a cluster of symptoms, both psychological and physical, which appear episodically in relation to the phases of the menstrual cycle—either strictly in the premenstruum (Rees, 1953), or also at other times, such as at ovulation (Dalton, 1964). Most previous studies of the syndrome have been ‘retrospective’, i.e. women have been asked to report the presence of PMT during a previous cycle. McCance, Luff and Widdowson (1937) and Altman, Knowles and Bull (1941), who required their subjects to chart mood state daily, pointed to a discrepancy between the frequency of the condition as reported in studies using retrospective questioning and in their own findings. It is hardly surprising that there is controversy concerning the prevalence of a condition which is so poorly defined as is PMT.

Although psychiatrists trained in the United States and the British Isles pick out the same areas of psychopathology, American psychiatrists display a tendency, greater than British psychiatrists, to use high ratings of pathology when asked to rate a videotaped clinical interview (Kendell et al., 1971; Sharpe et al., 1974). Within the British Isles Maudsley-trained psychiatrists rated lower than psychiatrists trained at other centres (Copeland et al., 1971).