Psychiatrists rarely enquire about caffeine intake when assessing patients. This may lead to a failure to identify caffeine-related problems and offer appropriate interventions. Excessive caffeine ingestion leads to symptoms that overlap with those of many psychiatric disorders. Caffeine is implicated in the exacerbation of anxiety and sleep disorders, and people with eating disorders often misuse it. It antagonises adenosine receptors, which may potentiate dopaminergic activity and exacerbate psychosis. In psychiatric in-patients, caffeine has been found to increase anxiety, hostility and psychotic symptoms. Assessment of caffeine intake should form part of routine psychiatric assessment and should be carried out before prescribing hypnotics. Gradual reduction in intake or gradual substitution with caffeine-free alternatives is probably preferable to abrupt cessation. Decaffeinated beverages should be provided on psychiatric wards.

Chick embryos are useful models for probing developmental mechanisms including those involved in organogenesis. In addition to classic embryological manipulations, it is possible to test the function of molecules and genes while the embryo remains within the egg. Here we define conditions for imaging chick embryo anatomy and for visualising living quail embryos. We focus on the developing limb and describe how different tissues can be imaged using micromagnetic resonance imaging and this information then synthesised, using a three-dimensional visualisation package, into detailed anatomy. We illustrate the potential for micro-magnetic resonance imaging to analyse phenotypic changes following chick limb manipulation. The work with the living quail embryos lays the foundations for using micromagnetic resonance imaging as an experimental tool to follow the consequences of such manipulations over time.

Motile cilia are an essential component of the mouse, zebrafish, and Xenopus laevis Left Right Organizers, generating nodal flow and allowing the reception and transduction of mechanosensory signals. Nonmotile primary cilia are also an important component of the Left Right Organizer's chemosensory mechanism. It has been proposed in the chicken that signaling in Hensen's node, the Left Right Organizer of the chicken, is independent of cilia, based on a lack of evidence of motile cilia or nodal flow. It is speculated that the talpid3 chicken mutant, which has normal left–right patterning despite lacking cilia at many stages of development, is proof of this hypothesis. Here, we examine the evidence for cilia in Hensen's node and find that although cilia are present; they are likely to be immotile and incapable of generating nodal flow. Furthermore, we find that early planar cell polarity patterning and ciliogenesis is normal in early talpid3 chicken embryos. We conclude that patterning and development of the early talpid3 chicken is normal, but not necessarily independent of cilia. Although it appears that Hensen's node does not require motile cilia or the generation of motile flow, there may remain a requirement for cilia in the transduction of SHH signaling.ResultsFOXJ1 is expressed at low levels in the chicken node incompatible with motile cilia generationShort cilia are present in the mesodermal cells of the chicken nodeTalpid3 chicken embryos have normal VANGL2 localization early in developmentTalpid3 chicken embryos have primary cilia early in development