[The anxiolytic action of phenoxypropanolamine derivatives in comparison with propranolol, diazepam and placebo].

The hypothesis that the phenoxypropanolamine derivative CGP 361 A possesses anxiolytic activity was examined in 80 female healthy volunteers. Each volunteer received the treatment under double-blind conditions as part of a 1-way analysis of variance design. The medication factor had 4 levels (CGP 361 A, propranolol, diazepam and placebo).

[Evaluation of pathogenic events in psychiatric patients using the anamnestic fiches of the AMDP system].

Numerous studies have confirmed the importance of recent "life events" in triggering a psychiatric episode, whereas the so-called predisposing effect of past events is less well known. The present study analyzes the results of a retrospective documentation of the AMDP anamnestic forms in hospitalized patients. In order to avoid the influence of the evolution of psychopathology in itself, only first episode patients were included.

[Specificity and lack of specificity in psychiatric diseases].

The definition of a set of empirically accessible psychiatric variables on an international scale expresses the hope for nosologically more specific therapeutic methods. This is demonstrated by the example of the German translation of DSM III and by examples of biological markers for psychiatric syndromes. To begin with these are introduced as nosologically specific, but turned out to be nonspecific as a rule.

[Cerebral seizures in neuroleptic therapy].

Basing on a review of the literature and on own research, the authors examine the incidence rate of convulsions under neuroleptic treatment. In addition, the authors go into the neurophysiological and neuropharmacological mechanisms of the convulsive action of neuroleptics. An attempt is made to present information on the incidence rate of attacks and on the clinical conditions on the basis of individual case reports and drug studies.

[Renal tumor diagnosis with ultrasound and CT].

The use of sonography and computer tomography has resulted in a marked change in the diagnosis of renal space occupying lesions. The value of these diagnostic tests is analyzed mainly in the diagnosis of solid kidney tumors. The possibilities and limitations are analyzed and the addition of further diagnostic procedures such as fine needle puncture and operative exploration are considered.

Specificity and nonspecificity--a major problem in biologically oriented psychopathology.

In the hope of discovering simple disease entities that could permit specific treatment, much effort is currently directed toward the operationalization of psychopathological syndromes. As a necessary supplement to these endeavors, the pathophysiological aspect is emphasized in this study. The nonspecificity of pathophysiological mechanisms with reference to psychiatric syndromes is illustrated using the example of inhibition of the orienting reaction in schizophrenia and depression.

[From Kraepelin to the system of the Association for Methodology and Documentation in Psychiatry (AMDP)].

Proceeding on the assumption that the AMDP system represents a standardization of the language of clinical observation, a language uniting the objective and the subjective or better, the observed and the experienced, the difference is demonstrated between the situation of today's researcher in the presence of such a language and the situation of Kraepelin for whom the significance of the words employed in describing an ill person was not challenged yet. It is emphasized that Kraepelin, founder of an etiological nosology in psychiatry, tried to develop another point of view, that of a pathophysiology surpassing his original and monocausal conception of psychic troubles. In the present situation this pathophysiological aspect in psychiatry is realized only in its first elements in the psychophysiology of psychic troubles.

[Ultrasound controlled puncture of renal cysts: biochemical and radiological findings (author's transl)].

Ultrasonographically-guided renal cyst puncture was done in 128 patients on outpatient basis. Cortical renal cysts were seen in both male and female patients in an equal ratio. Mean age was 59.

Evoked potentials, expectancy wave, and skin resistance in depressed patients and healthy controls.

Averaged evoked potentials, expectancy waves and number and amplitude of skin resistance responses to auditory stimuli are found to be significantly smaller in a group of 18 patients with primary depression than in 27 healthy controls. AEP amplitude attenuation is shown not to be an averaging artifact, due to varying response latencies. There are no simple relations between electrocortical and electrodermal parameters, but patients display more significant correlations between these two sets of variable than controls.

[On the relevance of clinical measurements testing psychogeriatric drugs (author's transl)].

The role of experience and the strategies of action acquired during life history in testing psychogeriatric drugs by means of quantitative methods is analyzed and the thus unsatisfactory situation in therapeutical tests of these drugs is stressed: The demand of a proximity to real life of the quantitative methods of measurements leads, on the one hand, to the consequence that because of the complexity of this kind of measurements very differential single-case analyses are necessary. It has been shown, on the other hand, that a comparison of test profiles of the results of different common psychometric tests is not very conclusive. Finally, simple methods of testing are mentioned which are based on information theory controlling complexity with regard to information content and rate of discrimination.

[Nosology and physiopathology in psychiatry--current aspects of Kraepelin's views on pathology].

Nosological and pathophysiological aspects of psychiatric syndromes in the work of Emil Kraepelin are discussed. A chronological review shows that through developing his nosology, pathophysiological points of view because more and more prominent and nosological aspects got only a relative weight. Considering this background, the still accepted nosology of Kraepelin seems to have only the character of a typology, i.