Trends in the Mental Health Act Review Tribunals: a Welsh experience 2004-2008.

Aims And Method: This study aims at identifying any local trend in the appeal process and to determine if we are complying with the MHA 1983 and the Code of Practice by reviewing all the appeals to Mental Health Review Tribunals in a psychiatric hospital in South Wales for the period from 2004 to 2008.

Results: The total numbers of sections and appeals remain steady over the years. Men are slightly more detained than women mainly under Sections 2 and 3 of the MH Act 1983.

Musical hallucinations in normal children and adult non-psychiatric population.

A descriptive account of musical hallucinations of a series of 19 people is presented. Five people reported the onset of hallucination before adulthood. In this paper we demonstrate that musical hallucinations are not necessarily pathological and can occur as a normal experience in people (children and adults) who have no contact with mental health services and no concurrent mental disorder.

A case of depersonalization-derealization syndrome during treatment with quetiapine.

A case who schizophrenia developed patient male of a 65-year-old is reported depersonalization-derealization syndrome following treatment with quetiapine, an atypical antipsychotic. The literature is reviewed for possible biological mechanisms that may account for this phenomenon.

A trans-cultural comparison of four psychiatric case-finding instruments in a Welsh community.

Background: Case-finding instruments have been developed for different purposes and in different cultural settings. Four instruments designed to detect psychiatric morbidity in community-based populations were studied in order to compare the performance of instruments from differing sources in a common setting.

Methods: The study was undertaken in a Welsh primary care setting.

Early psychological reactions in a group of individuals with pre-existing and enduring mental health difficulties following a major coach accident.

Background: The impact of major trauma on individuals with pre-existing and enduring mental health difficulties is poorly understood.

Method: Twenty individuals with pre-existing and enduring mental health difficulties were assessed with the Clinician Administered Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Scale, the 28-item version of the GHO, the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, and the impact of Event Scale between four and eight weeks after their involvement in a major coach accident.

Results: Ten (50%) individuals satisfied the full DSM-IV criteria for a diagnosis of PTSD.

Use of traditional and orthodox health services in urban Zimbabwe.

Background: Health care in Zimbabwe is provided by both orthodox and traditional care providers. With formal medical services under economic strain it is important to understand the extent of consulting with traditional care providers and their effectiveness.

Methods: A cross-sectional community survey recorded consultations and self-treatment for episodes of illness among 1251 individuals in 222 households randomly selected in two high-density suburbs of Harare, Zimbabwe.

Irritable bowel syndrome and family history of psychiatric disorder: a preliminary study.

A series of 70 consecutive patients with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) were interviewed concerning their family history of psychiatric disorders. A series of 60 consecutive patients with major depression (MDE) were also interviewed, as were a control group of 46 relatives of patients with organic brain disease. The results showed that both IBS and MDE groups had a similar, higher prevalence of relatives with psychiatric illness than controls, and that this was due to a higher prevalence of anxiety and depressive disorder in the relatives.