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.     

Status of perfusion scintigraphy in the diagnostic strategy in cerebrovascular disorders and space-occupying lesions

The results of an evaluation of the perfusion scintigraphy findings of 350 hospitalised neurological patients and 55 more strictly selected neurosurgical patients with cerebrovascular complaints, revealed an accuraty of 83%, a sensitivity of 89%, and a specificity of 83%. The selection of the patients had no influence on the results as a whole. Compared with contrast-medium angiography, incorrect diagnosis must be expected in 17% of the cases. This includes erroneous negative findings in 10% of the cases. Grounds for misinterpretations are suggested, and the biological and methodological limitations of the method are set forth.     

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.     

Structural differentiation of psychological performances in epilepsy patients

Investigating the specific of psychic performance disorders in epileptics structural aspects in addition to quantitative performance differences are considerable. We compared psychometrically obtained performance structures of epileptic children and adults and of parallelised healthy control persons. It became evident, that the performance differentiation hypothesis is to corroborate also in epileptic patients. The psychic performance structure of epileptics is characterized by a lower differentiation level of the basis functions underlining the performances. Our factor analytic investigations emphasize the importance of deceleration of psychic/psychomotoric speed in epileptics as primary basic disorder.     

Psychometric detection of depressive mood conditions

An investigation into the diagnostic value of psychometric methods for the diagnosis of depressive states involved five psychometric questionnaires, one concentration test procedure, and one problem-solving approach to register cognitive processes. The data obtained for 80 depressive patients of varied aetiology were compared with those of sample of 80 neurotics without depressive aberration. Even univariate comparisons revealed statistically significant differences between the two samples. Multivariate methods (factor analysis, discriminative analysis) yielded more differentiated information. The "Scale for depression depth measurements" was found to be of particular diagnostic relevance; it was standardized for the time being.     

Personality and social resources in immediate and continued stress resistance among women

In this study we investigated the immediate and continued impact on women of a major stressful event, the outcome of pregnancy, and the mitigating effect of self-esteem and intimacy with their spouse on their reactions. Few other studies have investigated initial reactions to crisis events. Ninety-nine Israeli women who experienced either normal delivery or pregnancy complications were interviewed at the time of the event and 3 months later. High self-esteem was found to limit feelings of depression at both times. Intimacy with spouse limited depression at the event, but not at follow-up. High self-esteem was seen as always being exploitable by women who possessed it, whereas the benefit of intimacy with spouse was seen as being dependent on situational demands and environmental constraints. Cross-cultural implications were presented.