A community study of formal pastoral counseling activities of the clergy.

Although the clergy have been identified as a major community mental health resource, few epidemiologic studies of clergy practices have been conducted. The authors report a comprehensive survey of the counseling activities of clergy groups serving south-central Connecticut. They found that the clergy were a heterogeneous counseling group and that the counseling activities of many were extremely limited, although all were experienced with "troubled individuals".

[Diagnostic value of whole-body computerized tomography in tumors in children].

First experience is reported in the application of computerized tomography to tumorous diseases in childhood, being localized in the mediastinum, lungs, abdomen, bones and soft tissue. In the majority of cases the indication for CT was to identify or exclude tumors. In a little part the method served to determine the extent of the tumor for therapy planing.

Equity and changing patient characteristics--1950 to 1975.

The treatment patterns for psychiatric patients in a northeastern industrial community in 1975 are compared with treatment patterns in 1950. This survey is a follow-up of Hollingshead and Redlich's Social Class and Mental Illness. Special emphasis is placed on current treatment settings for the patient groups that in 1950 were either totally excluded from psychiatric care or using the state hospital exclusively.

Mental health practitioners. Old stereotypes and new realities.

Changes in the patterns of mental health care have led to shifts in the treatment roles of types of mental health personnel. The current contributions of mental health personnel in one geographic region were identified. Over 500 psychiatrists, clinical psychologists, psychiatric social workers, psychiatric nurses, and mental health workers responded to questionnaires covering their personal background, training and education, treatment roles, salary, and attitudes.

Equity and the psychiatric care of the black patient, 1950 to 1975.

The psychiatric treatment of the black patient in a Northeastern industrial region in 1975 is compared with the treatment patterns existing for black patients in 1950. This survey is part of the Trends in Mental Health Project, which is a 25-year follow-up of certain aspects of Hollingshead and Redlich's 1950 study, Social Class and Mental Illness (John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1958). This survey reveals that black patients in 1975, as compared to 1950, continued to utilize almost exclusively the state hospital for inpatient care.

Trends in American mental health.

Using the data collected by Hollingshead and Redlich in 1950 and their own recent data, the authors describe trends in the mental health field over a 25-year period. They found a marked increase in admissions and readmissions to inpatient facilities and a significant decrease in the average length of stay; a considerable increase in outpatient treatment services; a shift in major diagnostic categories from schizophrenia to alcoholism; an unequal allocation of services to young versus elderly patients; discharge of many chronic patients to nursing homes; the increased involvement of psychiatrists in administrative work and decreased time spent in direct patient care; and an increase in third-party insurance as a source of patient fees.

Overview: Ethical issues in contemporary psychiatry.

The authors survey the ethical problems confronting psychiatry today. They state that with rare exceptions psychiatric intervention can be morally justified only with the potential patient's informed consent. Within this framework, they discuss the fact that today nonpsychiatrists, particularly ethicists, lawyers, legislators, and social scientists, as well as psychiatrists are concerned about medical ethics, specifically regarding the right to be treated, the right not to be treated, the civil rights of psychiatric patients, the ethics of behavior control, the problem of conflicts of interest in therapeutic goals, privacy and confidentiality, the ethics of human experimentation, policy decisions, and psychiatry's relationship to the changing moral value structure of U.