Clinical trial of contemnol tablets (lithium retard Spofa)

A report on the clinical testing of the lithium-retard medicament Contemnol (Spofa). It details the way lithium-retard treatment is objectively and subjectively superior to the earlier and still current general lithium treatment.     

Neurochemical knowledge in electroconvulsive therapy (ECT)

The paper is concerned with an attempt to generalize and categorize current hypotheses on the biochemical basis of ECT. The hypotheses are critically evaluated with respect to the relevance of their experimental fundamentals. Thus, certain hypotheses are valid only in a qualified sense. Particular interest is focussed on those conceptions which try to correlate ECT-induced changes in synaptic receptor sensitivities (up-/down-regulation) with super- resp. subsensitivity hypotheses of psychoses. In this connection, noradrenergic and opioid systems on the one hand, and the axis hypothalamus-hypophysis on the other hand seem to play a dominant role.     

Differential diagnosis and different etiologies of monopolar and bipolar phasic psychoses

Monopolar and bipolar phasic psychoses can be differentiated not only on the course but also on the symptom pattern. This applies also to the euphoric forms which usually are still assigned to Manic-depressive illness. The differential diagnosis is presented. Aetiology is completely different in the monopolar and the bipolar phasic psychoses. Manic-depressive illness has a hereditary basic, whereas in the monopolar ("pure") forms loading is very low. Particularly few psychoses among the relatives have been found in the euphoric forms which demonstrates their independency for if they would belong to Manic-depressive illness they necessarily would show the heavy genetic loading of this bipolar illness. In the pure phasic psychoses external causes were detected when we focused on the sibships in which the probands had grown up. The euphoric patients had relatively many older siblings, the depressive ones relatively few older siblings. A similar difference was found in two cycloid psychoses. Transcultural observations as well as shifts in the incidence rate of the psychoses in our times confirmed our results. Prophylactic measures can be derived.     

Hermann Emminghaus--100 years of the psychopathology of childhood and adolescence

The centenary of Hermann Emminghaus's monograph "Die psychischen St?rungen des Kindesalters" ("The Psychic Disorders of Childhood") gives occasion to appreciate the life and work of the founder of modern children and youth psychiatry. Children and youth psychiatry, in the G.D.R., operates on the principle of sub-specialization out of its parent subjects. In this, Hermann Emminghaus's basic views, as expressed in his monograph of 1887, are confirmed.     

Principles of computer-assisted classification in psychiatry

The use of computer based diagnostic decision and artificial intelligence are discussed in relation to the problems of validity and reliability of psychiatric diagnoses. The authors suggest a definition of a computer aided classificator as an existent decision system for an automatically analysis of findings.