Results of the use of lithium to prevent recurrence of affective psychosis

The efficacy of lithium treatment in preventing relapse in phasal psychoses was tested by the re-examination of 99 patients at a Dresden clinic whose treatment had on average exceeded ten years. Results and progress were compared with those of patients starting treatment since the introduction of the lithium treatment in the year 1979. Phase or subphase frequency and duration, conditions of treatment, suicide attempts, unfitness for work, and registration as a disabled person were among the aspects considered.     

Expert assessment of competence to make a will following the death of the testator

The paper expounds the legal basis in the DDR for preparing a retrospective assessment of a deceased person's capacity to make a will, and examines the special features and the conclusions of 26 expert psychiatric opinions. A commentary is supplied on the characteristics of the situation.     

Genetic marker findings in systematic and unsystematic schizophrenias

The systematic schizophrenias are marked genetically by a significant surplus of the Gc serum type 1-1 (p less than 0.0005), what can be demonstrated by the separated analysis of the hebephrenias (p less than 0.0005), paraphrenias (p less than 0.01) and catatonias (p less than 0.05) also. Furtheron there is some evidence that the Gc subtype 1F plays a predominant role within the Gc 1-1 excess (p less than 0.01). The unsystematic schizophrenias (periodic catatonias and affective paraphrenias) do not deviate in their Gc distribution from the corresponding control values, but they exhibit contrary to the systematic forms a surplus of the haptoglobin serum group 2-2 like phasic psychoses. The marker findings are discussed with respect to the relevant data of biological psychiatry and biochemical genetics.     

The logical study of science

The relation between logic and philosophy of science, often taken for granted, is in fact problematic. Although current fashionable criticisms of the usefulness of logic are usually mistaken, there are indeed difficulties which should be taken seriously — having to do, amongst other things, with different scientific mentalities in the two disciplines (section 1). Nevertheless, logic is, or should be, a vital part of the theory of science. To make this clear, the bulk of this paper is devoted to the key notion of a scientific theory in a logical perspective. First, various formal explications of this notion are reviewed (section 2), then their further logical theory is discussed (section 3). In the absence of grand inspiring programs like those of Klein in mathematics or Hilbert in metamathematics, this preparatory ground-work is the best one can do here. The paper ends on a philosophical note, discussing applicability and merits of the formal approach to the study of science (section 4).I would like to thank David Pearce and Veikko Rantala for their helpful comments.     

The level of organization of the motor schema

The interpretations of Piaget and Schmidt on the level on which the motor schema is supposedly effective were evaluated in pre-school children of different ages in a throwing task. In an analysis of variance on the accuracy scores, significant main effects for age, sex, and throwing arm were found. Further, the results showed no relationship between accuracy scores with the preferred and non-preferred arm in the younger group, while in the older group a moderate relationship was found. This result was interpreted in terms of structural development and as a warning for studies where Schmidt's variability-of-practice hypothesis is tested.     

Some kinds of modal completeness

In the modal literature various notions of completeness have been studied for normal modal logics. Four of these are defined here, viz. (plain) completeness, first-order completeness, canonicity and possession of the finite model property — and their connections are studied. Up to one important exception, all possible inclusion relations are either proved or disproved. Hopefully, this helps to establish some order in the jungle of concepts concerning modal logics. In the course of the exposition, the interesting properties of first-order definability and preservation under ultrafilter extensions are introduced and studied as well.     

Perceptual interpretation of complex line patterns

Leeuwenberg's coding system for the representation of line pattern interpretations is tentatively applied to the interpretation of complex line patterns, that is, line patterns with intersecting lines. Perceptually preferred interpretations of complex line patterns can only be predicted correctly if two requirements are met: (a) The codes of line patterns should contain information about the objects represented by the line patterns, not about the line patterns as drawings; and (b) effects of the gestalt law of good continuation have to be taken into account.