Group Psychotherapy in Iceland.

In this overview of group psychotherapy in Iceland, an attempt will be made to describe how it is practiced today, give some glimpses into its earlier history, and clarify seven issues: (1) the standing of group psychotherapy in Iceland, its previous history, and the theoretical orientation of dynamic group therapy in the country; (2) the role of group therapy in the health care system; (3) how training in group therapy is organized; (4) the relationship between group psychotherapy research and clinical practice; (5) which issues/processes can be identified as unique to therapy groups in Iceland; and (6) how important are group-related issues within the social background of the country; and (7) what group work holds for the future.

The effects of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation on depressive symptoms and the P(300) event-related potential.

Changes in the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale and the P(300) auditory event-related potential were assessed in 10 patients with depression before and after a treatment course of five daily sessions of 10 Hz repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) over the left prefrontal cortex. The patients were initially randomly allocated either to an active or a placebo rTMS treatment. All patients received both types of treatment separated by an interval of 4 weeks.

Neuregulin 1 and susceptibility to schizophrenia.

The cause of schizophrenia is unknown, but it has a significant genetic component. Pharmacologic studies, studies of gene expression in man, and studies of mouse mutants suggest involvement of glutamate and dopamine neurotransmitter systems. However, so far, strong association has not been found between schizophrenia and variants of the genes encoding components of these systems.