SUMMARYAddiction is a complex psychiatric disorder considered to be a disease of the brain's natural reward reinforcement system. Repeated stimulation of the 'reward' pathway leads to adaptive changes in gene expression and synaptic organization that reinforce drug taking and underlie long-term changes in behaviour. The primitive nature of reward reinforcement pathways and the near universal ability of abused drugs to target the same system allow drug-associated reward and reinforcement to be studied in non-mammalian species. Zebrafish have proved to be a valuable model system for the study of vertebrate development and disease. Here we demonstrate that adult zebrafish show a dose-dependent acute conditioned place preference (CPP) reinforcement response to ethanol or nicotine. Repeated exposure of adult zebrafish to either nicotine or ethanol leads to a robust CPP response that persists following 3·weeks of abstinence and in the face of adverse stimuli, a behavioural indicator of the establishment of dependence. Microarray analysis using whole brain samples from drug-treated and control zebrafish identified 1362 genes that show a significant change in expression between control and treated individuals. Of these genes, 153 are common to both ethanol-and nicotine-treated animals. These genes include members of pathways and processes implicated in drug dependence in mammalian models, revealing conservation of neuro-adaptation pathways between zebrafish and mammals.Supplementary material available online at

This paper argues that existing English and Welsh mental health legislation (The Mental Health Act 1983 (MHA)) should be changed to make provision for advance decision-making (ADM) within statute and makes detailed recommendations as to what should constitute this statutory provision. The recommendations seek to enable a culture change in relation to written statements made with capacity such that they are developed within mental health services and involve joint working on mental health requests as well as potential refusals. In formulating our recommendations, we consider the historical background of ADM, similarities and differences between physical and mental health, a taxonomy of ADM, the evidence base for mental health ADM, the ethics of ADM, the necessity for statutory ADM and the possibility of capacity based ‘fusion’ law on ADM. It is argued that the introduction of mental health ADM into the MHA will provide clarity within what has become a confusing area and will enable and promote the development and realisation of ADM as a form of self-determination. The paper originated as a report commissioned by, and submitted to, the UK Government's 2018 Independent Review of the Mental Health Act 1983.

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At Guy's King's and St Thomas’ School of Medicine, a unique initiative is the Psychiatry Early Experience Programme (PEEP), which allows students to shadow psychiatry trainees at work several times a year. The students’ attitudes towards psychiatry and the scheme are regularly assessed and initial results are already available.Disclosure of interestThe authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

The teaching of French as a foreign language (FFL) has been introduced in the Malaysian education system since the 1980s. Following the Malaysian government's globalization policy, FFL teaching, and learning are now expanding in this nation including at the Public Higher Educational Institutions (IPTA) in Malaysia. The present study aimed to determine how interested and enthusiastic the respective IPTA students were in learning French. This quantitative study involves 329 students from twelve IPTAs: UITM, UKM, UPM, UPNM, UMK, USM, UM, USIM, UTM, UPSI, UUM, and UMT. The results of the study found that 91.8% of respondents had a strong interest in the French language. While their attitude toward the foreign language is average. To accomplish language learning objectives, interests, and attitudes must coincide. Consequently, self-learning activities such as reading newspapers, accessing the internet, and communicating in French need to be improved.