[Goldberg's General Health Questionnaire].

This paper reviews the different applications of the General Health Questionnaire in clinical work and research. Based on extensive experience of different versions of the GHQ, the authors recommend the 20- or 30-item versions, and not the 28-item version, as most suitable for the longitudinal and state assessments of distress, psychopathology and quality of life in medical and psychiatric populations.

A prospective study of patients with uncharacteristic abdominal disorders.

A prospective study was carried out in 51 patients admitted for abdominal complaints of at least 1 year's duration. Despite previous hospitalization for the same complaints, no certain diagnosis had been established. After systematic diagnostic procedures in the Medical Dept.

Communicability in consultation/liaison psychiatry: patient treatment and patient care.

Effective communication seems to necessitate a very conscious (supra-) professional attitude at the hand of the liaison person, so that she or he continuously keeps in mind the possibilities and limitations in terms of communicability-no matter rank or level of consumers. From the point of view of communicability in general, one will need: (a) a body of knowledge and techniques relevant to the needs and purposes of the consumers; (b) a varied set of understandable languages in terms of frames of reference and definitions of concepts, adjusted to the various levels of complexity needed, (c) liaison person attitudes coherent to the chosen frames of reference, (d) a realistic view of the possibilities in different liaison set-ups, and (e) a conscious didactic strategy based on considerations of the aims of one's function. Among the above listed factors we shall especially focus on our 'erroneous zones' and failures in our endeavors to forward psychosomatic ideas and attitudes, and some implications of patient care and nursing concretely in connection with some cases submitted to minor surgical treatment, demonstrating the importance of practical psychosomatic impact at the level of patient nursing and care.