Children in the criminal justice and secure care systems: how their mental health needs are met.

A study was made of the perceptions among relevant service providers of the mental health needs of young people considered for secure placement. Information was obtained in 1996 from 75% of departments of child and adolescent psychiatry, forensic psychiatry, social services children's services, youth justice, probation, secure units and young offender institutions in England and Wales. The findings confirm that highly disturbed young people, who may be a danger to themselves and others, may present to a wide range of services, and that their mental health needs are neither well recognized, widely understood, nor adequately met.

Direct determination of 7-hydroxycoumarin and 7-hydroxycoumarin-glucuronide in urine by using capillary electrophoresis.

A method has been developed for the direct determination of 7-hydroxycoumarin (7HC) and 7-hydroxycoumarin-glucuronide (7HCG) in urine without sample clean-up. Separation was carried out in 90% 100 mmol l-1 phosphate buffer, 11 mmol l-1 deoxycholic acid (sodium salt) and 10% acetonitrile, on a 47 cm uncoated silica capillary at 20 kV with detection of the analytes at 320 nm. The linear detection range for concentration versus peak area for the assay is from 0 to 100 micrograms ml-1 for both analytes, with a limit of quantitation of 2 micrograms ml-1 for 7HC and 5 micrograms ml-1 for 7HCG in urine.

Treatment with coumarin to prevent or delay recurrence of malignant melanoma.

Both coumarin (1,2-benzopyrone) and warfarin (4-hydroxycoumarin) have been shown to prevent the recurrence of malignant melanoma. Their action is macrophage-dependent and the dosage is critical. In 1984 a multicentre, prospective, randomised, double-blind trial of coumarin, given as a daily 50-mg dose for 2 years after surgery in patients with high-risk melanoma, was started.

A critical analysis of the use of sialic acid determination in the diagnosis of malignancy.

The measurement of serum sialic acid in sera from individuals with leukemia, breast, gastrointestinal, lung and bladder cancers, brucellosis and manic depression is described. The serum sialic acid levels were also examined in mice bearing Landschutz ascites tumours. The presence of sialic acid-enriched glycopeptides in serum was shown.

The rarity of liver toxicity in patients treated with coumarin (1,2-benzopyrone).

1. Two thousand, one hundred and seventy-three patients with cancer or chronic infections were treated with coumarin in a clinical trial. 2.

Chronic human brucellosis and anti-anergic treatment with levamisole.

Dysfunction of the cellular immune mechanism was found in 23 patients with persistent symptoms of brucellosis of more than one year's duration when skin tested for delayed hypersensitivity to dinitrochlorobenzene (DNCB). Eighteen patients had low normal or depressed E rosetting capacity of their lymphocytes. Anti-anergic treatment with levamisole 150 mg daily for one month and for two consecutive days each week for six months produced an exacerbation of symptoms after one to four weeks followed by complete relief from symptoms in 15 patients and partial relief in four.