OBJECTIVE This review aims to summarize the importance of animal models for research on psychiatric illnesses, particularly schizophrenia. METHOD AND RESULTS Several aspects of animal models are addressed, including animal experimentation ethics and theoretical considerations of different aspects of validity of animal models. A more specific discussion is included on two of the most widely us...

An attitude survey of psychiatrists has shown that alcoholism is the least favoured of the organic and psychiatric illnesses. They considered that this attitude was shared by general physicians and surgeons. The unfavourable attitudes towards alcoholism are unlikely to improve the success of treatment programmes. It is suggested that education within the professions is needed.

Six consecutive patients who had had temporal lobe surgery for epilepsy, and been referred for psychiatric assessment of psychotic symptoms, are reported. Their symptoms (a delusional depression, four schizophrenia-like illnesses, and a case of Capgras' syndrome) are discussed in relation to the possible role of their operations, all of which were on the right hemisphere.

OBJECTIVE Evaluation was done of a possible link between psychiatric and physical illnesses in suicide victims 25 years of age or younger. METHODS This was a follow-up study based on a 13-year database (n = 1,585) of all suicides committed during the years 1988 to 2000 in northern Finland with linkage to national hospital discharge registers. The setting for the study was the province of Oulu...