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Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) glutamate levels were measured in 28 paranoid schizophrenic patients and 15 healthy individuals. From the 28 patients 15 were treated with neuroleptic drugs and 13 did not take any drugs. No significant difference was found between glutamate in patients without neuroleptics and controls. However, CSF glutamate was significantly higher in patients taking neuroleptics than in controls (P less than 0.001) or in patients without neuroleptics (P less than 0.01). This and other data from the literature indicate that enhanced levels of cerebral glutamate may be significant for the antipsychotic efficacy of neuroleptic drugs.

Using a specific radioimmunoassay we have measured somatostatin-like immunoreactivity (SLIR) of CSF in patients with brain atrophy, spinal spasticity, seizures, brain tumors and inflammatory disorders. Patients with marked brain atrophy had significantly decreased somatostatin levels in CSF. In patients with spinal spasticity significantly higher levels were observed. Seizure patients had reduced levels but the difference was not significant. In patients with inflammatory disorders and malignant brain tumors SLIR levels were significantly elevated but not in patients with benign brain tumors. A possible pathophysiologic meaning of SLIR in spasticity and seizures is discussed. The altered levels in brain atrophy, tumors and inflammatory disorders are probably indirect signs of altered somatostatin turnover or increased somatostatin leakage from damaged CNS.

Smooth pursuit and saccadic eye movements of schizophrenic patients were examined. In a pendulum (0.5 Hz) tracking task schizophrenic inpatients had a slightly lower smooth pursuit gain than outpatients and controls, who showed no significant differences. The number of saccades, counter-saccades and velocity arrests occurring in a 20 s tracking epoque was the same in patients and controls, but patients made larger saccades. When tracking a stepping target by saccadic eye movements, schizophrenic inpatients, and to a lesser extent outpatients, exhibited longer reaction times than controls and had a higher incidence of "non-fixation" (saccades away from the target while the target is stationary). Schizophrenic patients also showed a significantly larger proportion of dysmetric saccades (undershooting the target). While similar changes of reaction time and non-fixation score were observed in manic-depressives and alcoholics, dysmetria was more often found in schizophrenics and possibly constitutes the expression of a specific impairment of attention.

In view of the fact that with psychophysical methods monocular luminance changes may increase the detection rate of pathological interocular-latency differences in MS patients, we studied the influence of stimulus luminance on the detection rate of MS using checkerboard visual evoked potentials. Decrements of stimulus luminance covering a range of three log units were unable to increase the detection rate of VEP. Regression coefficients of the luminance-latency functions did not differ in MS patients and normals. Contrary to the hypothesis tested, the diagnostic significance of VEP decreases with decreasing stimulus intensity.

Aspects of the course of manic depressive and schizo-affective psychoses with high recurrence (the patient must have suffered from at least three episodes) are measured by length of episodes, intervals, and cycles. Differences between two patient samples from Switzerland and Poland, and differences between the two diagnostic groups are analyzed taking into account some independent variables such as sex, marital state, age at onset, precipitation, and symptomatology. Bipolar and schizo-affective psychoses show similar patterns of course: early onset, high relapse rate, high number of episodes, and short intervals. Compared to schizo-affective psychoses bipolar psychoses tend to have a higher frequency of episodes per year, shorter intervals, and the length of episodes is longer. Multivariate analysis shows very few correlations of independent variables with aspects of the course. On the whole the differences between the diagnostic groups are much smaller than between the two centers. The Polish and Swiss patient samples differ in course considerably. The patients from Zurich show longer episodes, intervals, and cycles, therefore, the frequency of episodes per year is lower in Zurich. Only a smaller part of the variance can be explained by differences in psychopathology (the Polish patients are more manic and more paranoid). There remain unexplained qualitative differences between the two centers which show how difficult it is to compare scientific results from different sources.

The personality structures and the well-being of the partners of a representative sample of 103 married depressive or schizophrenic hospitalised patients were examined. As a means of examination we used a semi-structured interview, the Giessen-test (Beckmann and Richter 1972, 1979) and the Eigenschaftswörterliste (Janke and Debus 1978). Concerning personality, the comparison of self-image of the partners with the patient's estimation of his or her spouse resulted in good mutual agreement. The spouses of schizophrenic and depressive patients differed neither as far as the average profiles were concerned nor according to the cluster-analysis findings. In addition to this, both groups differed only to a minor extent from a representative sample of the general population. Whereas personal attitude and the well-being of the marital partners were for the most part independent of the depressive or schizophrenic kind of illness, personality and well-being of the spouses correlated with the course of the illness. The more phases of illness the spouses had witnessed, the more unattractive, self-controlled and uncommunicative they proved to be and the less irritated and sensitive they were when the patient was hospitalised. These findings are discussed in the light of further research.

We have measured the metabolites (demethylated and hydroxylated) of amitriptyline in a group of seven normal volunteers. They were phenotyped as extensive or poor metabolizers using debrisoquine and bufuralol. The results demonstrate that the oxidative metabolism (aliphatic hydroxylation) of amitriptyline is under the same genetic control as that of debrisoquine and bufuralol. However, phenotypic polymorphism cannot be used to predict amitriptyline blood concentration after a single oral dose, since the principal metabolic pathway of amitriptyline is demethylation and not aliphatic hydroxylation.

In rats, chronic amitriptyline (14 days, 10 mg/kg, IP) administration resulted in a significant increase in the serum glutamate concentration and concomitant increase in the serum free tryptophan. In contrast, amitriptyline had no effect on the total serum tryptophan or CSF glutamate level. The data confirmed that antidepressant drugs may induce an increase of the serum glutamate concentration in depressive patients.

In 8 patients with manifest Huntington's Chorea vestibulo-ocular (VOR) and cervico-ocular (COR) reflexes were compared with eye movements during active head turnings. Seated patients were stimulated with their eyes closed by sinusoidal swings around the vertical axis at frequencies of 0.05, 0.1 and 0.2s-1 with amplitudes of 20, 40 and 60 degrees. 1) With all stimuli and in all patients a weak nystagmus was elicited in the direction of head movements, superimposed on larger slow eye deviations. 2) The averaged total saccadic amplitudes were smaller than in normals, increased with stimulus amplitudes and were smallest for COR, followed by VOR and active head movements. 3) The gain (peak velocity of slow phase of nystagmus to peak stimulus velocity) was only slightly below norm values and decreased with increasing stimulus frequency and amplitude. 4) The peak amplitudes of average slow eye deviations increased with stimulus amplitudes. In VOR they were comparable to norm values but were below them during COR and active head movements. 5) In normal subjects these slow eye deviations were compensatory to head movements in VOR but anticompensatory in COR and during active head movements. In choreic patients during COR and more often during active head movements these slow eye movements were compensatory for the head turning.

Psychiatric patients (N=107) were studied regarding the importance of pertaining to a diagnostic group for the variation of emotional experience in music. The diagnostic groups chosen were: schizophrenic, depressive and manic psychosis, obsessive, depressive, anxiety and hysterical neurosis. As stimuli seven newly composed pieces of music orchestrated for a small symphony orchestra were used. The assessment of emotional experience was accomplished by semantic differential scales measuring the factors tension-relaxation, gaiety-gloom and attraction-repulsion. The most conspicuous findings were: the anxiety neurosis patients experienced the music as neutral in tension and gaiety, but repulsive. Hysterics experienced more gaiety and attraction together with varying degrees of tension, obsessives more tension, depressive psychotics more gloom and schizophrenics more attraction than other groups.