The results of the study support the hypothesis, that there is a co-morbidity between some psychiatric disorders and some skin diseases.

A study on the Standardized Assessment of Depressive Disorders (SADD) in collaboration with WHO Headquarters, Geneva, is reported in this paper. The instruments used for the study were screening forms and the SADD schedule, both of which were supplied by WHO. Fifty depressed patients were selected from the outpatients and inpatients of the Accra psychiatric hospital by experienced specialist psychiatrists using the screening forms. The two investigators then carried out a clinical assessment on each selected patient using the SADD schedule. The data collected were subjected to computer analysis. Findings were similar to those from previous WHO/SADD studies in different cultures. Specifically, the investigators found a "core" of depressive symptomatology among African patients in Ghana. An interesting finding was the change in the presentation of depression in African patients over the past 30 years. Broad diagnostic groupings like endogenous depression and psychogenic depression could easily be applied to the study patients. There is a great need for more SADD studies in Africa.

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Eventfulness as a strategy for creating a meaningful life is an important component of the attempts of people with schizophrenia to present a positive self-image. This study of patients with schizophrenia shows that the phenomenon of creating eventfulness through normalcy accounts is relevant cross-culturally, with common themes occurring in the speech of participants from Papua New Guinea and New Zealand. Both patient (n = 23) and nonpatient (n = 27) participants from these two countries were interviewed as part of a larger research project. Conversational speech of participants was analyzed for passages that could be defined as normalcy accounts. A total of 61 such accounts were obtained from the conversational samples. The three most common themes of normalcy accounts (educational achievement and goals, national pride, and travel) were characteristic of the self-presentation of nonpatient subjects as well as patients with schizophrenia. Normalcy themes varied slightly depending on nationality and patient or nonpatient status. The similarity of both normalcy account themes and presentation, however, was remarkably consistent across cultures.

In two studies using the dexamethasone suppression test (DST) to evaluate the efficacy of newer antidepressants in depressed outpatients, the authors found a DST nonsuppression rate of 13% (11 of 86 patients). Thirty-three of the DST suppressors received an antidepressant and 42 received placebo; the drug-treated group showed a significant therapeutic response. The low rate of DST nonsuppression in these depressed outpatients, a finding consistent with that of other investigators, does not confirm or refute reports that these patients are relatively resistant to placebo in comparison with active medication. The authors recommend that DST results not be used as selection criteria in studies assessing newer therapies for depressed outpatients.