AIDS and psychiatry, revisited.

The psychiatry of HW and AIDS is a subject that now receives little attention but is still relevant to clinical practice. The mechanism of the HW assault on the brain is still not clearly understood, although early detection of central nervous system involvement is becoming easier with neuropsychological assessment. It has been suggested that HN has brain specificity, with patients presenting with cerebral problems without other physical signs.

Ethics and aims in psychotherapy: a contribution from Kant.

Psychotherapy is an activity which takes many forms and which has many aims. The present paper argues that it can be viewed as a form of moral suasion. Kant's concepts of free will and ethics are described and these are then applied to the processes and outcome of psychotherapy.

Psychosis de novo following temporal lobectomy.

A case report of a 61 year-old male with a long history of complex partial seizures is presented. Multiple psychotic symptomatology developed post-operatively. It is argued that these reflect continuing right temporal epileptogenic activity.

Seasonal affective disorder among primary care consulters in January: prevalence and month by month consultation patterns.

Background: Little is known about the prevalence or the consultation patterns of patients with seasonal affective disorder (SAD) in primary care settings.

Methods: Patients aged 16-64 years consulting a general practitioner (G.P.

The problem drinker's lived experience of suffering: an exploration using hermeneutic phenomenology.

Research in the area of problem drinking has traditionally relied on quantitative methodologies which view the problem from the researcher's perspective. The purpose of this hermeneutic-phenomenological study was to describe and understand the problem drinker's lived experience of suffering using a philosophy and research approach which preserves the uniqueness of the experience from the sufferer's point of view. The method involved conducting in-depth interviews with a sample of six problem drinkers.

Computer modelling for patient observation.

Computer modelling can be used to help release nurses from administrative functions and enable them to spend more time with patients. In this article, the authors describe pilot project in mental health nursing designed to make the planning of patient observation more efficient.

General practitioners' views on a mental health service.

Aim: This study set out to investigate general practitioners (GPs) views on a Mental Health Service. It seeks their views on how well the Trust is providing those services and suggestions for change and development of the service.

Background: GPs are not generally regarded as consumers of services.

Seasonal changes in psychological well-being in an elderly population.

Background: Little is known about seasonal fluctuations in psychological well-being among elderly people.

Method: Over a period of 21 months, 1466 elderly people completed the General Health Questionnaire and the Leeds Scales for Depression and Anxiety. Scores during the winter months (December to February) were compared with those during other months of the year.

Grampian mental health divisional research unit.

In the move towards evidence-based practice, nurses need the technology to access research and evaluate their own work. This article describes a divisional unit which provides such a resource for mental health nurses in the Grampian area.

Research means more than randomised trials.

As nurses adopt evidence-based practice, they will become involved in a wide range of research projects. This report explores different types of research activity and offers some solutions to the problems of becoming a practitioner-researcher.

A strategy to reduce laxative use among older people.

Institutions can be places of routine and unquestioned practice in the administration of medications. In one mixed ward of psychogeriatric patients constipation was a common problem for which laxatives were routinely given. In this particular ward, many of the patients were receiving up to five different laxatives a day either orally or rectally.

Seasonal affective disorder among psychiatric nurses in Aberdeen.

The Seasonal Pattern Assessment Questionnaire was posted to psychiatric nurses in Aberdeen, and 443 (73% of eligible subjects) responded. The rate of Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) was 2.9% and for subsyndromal SAD (S-SAD) was 9.

Gender differences in attitudes and recruitment into psychiatry.

Factors in change of attitude toward psychiatry and encouragement of women into the field are mentioned.

Inquest on QUEST.

Describes how a group of nurse managers developed a tool for measuring the quality of care in mental hospital wards and how this was adapted for use within general elderly services. Examines the impact of the tool on service provision within a group of small local community hospitals and evaluates it using a matrix composed of Donabedian's structure/process/outcome model of quality and Maxwell's six dimensions of quality.

Gender-specific changes since 1900 in the season-of-birth effect in schizophrenia.

Background: It was hypothesised that the size of the season-of-birth effect may have decreased in tandem with the apparent decline in the incidence of schizophrenia.

Method: Through the Aberdeen Psychiatric Case Register, subjects were identified who had been diagnosed as schizophrenic and had been born between 1900 and 1969. The ratio of winter/spring to summer/autumn births was compared across the seven decades for both sexes together, for men, and for women.

Non-progressive familial idiopathic intracranial calcification: a family report.

The clinical features and long term outcome of familial idiopathic intracranial calcification in three members of one family are described. The illness presented as psychiatric disorder in all patients, and in one patient, epilepsy and intellectual deterioration were later manifestations. Skull radiographs and CT were performed sequentially, in one patient, over a 22 year period and, in another, CT was carried out eight years apart.

Increasing incidence of anorexia nervosa in the female population of northeast Scotland.

Objective: The aim of the study was to determine whether there has been an increase in the incidence of anorexia nervosa in the female population in the northeast of Scotland since the 1960s.

Method: Standardized diagnostic criteria were applied to the case records of female subjects who had been diagnosed as suffering from anorexia nervosa and had presented for the first time to psychiatric services between 1965 and 1991 or had been admitted for the first time to a general hospital between 1970 and 1991. Age-standardized annual incidence rates were calculated from 1965 through 1991.

A clinical study of chronic fatigue syndrome.

Background: This study examines the hypothesis that more recently ill patients with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) might have different characteristics from more chronic patients in tertiary referral centres.

Method: Sixty-four patients who fulfilled strict diagnostic criteria for CFS had detailed medical, viral, immunological and psychiatric assessment. Patients were advised to remain within their energy limits.