This study measured the levels of expressed emotion throughout the course of systemic family therapy. Videotapes of the first, second and final sessions of therapy were rated for twelve families, by an independent rater who was not inLVolved in the trratment. Six of the therapies were completed before the study began, and six were rated prospectively. Emotional over-involvement and criticism were found to be significantly reduced from the early stages, while warmth was found to increase later. The findings are discussed in relation to the systemic model.

No abstract

Eachof the chapterscritically examinesthe featuresof the various types of family violence, the interventions developedto remediateor prevent maltreatment, and endswith a summary and future directions for research.

The ECT Handbook: The Second Report of the Royal College of Psychiatrists' Special Committee on ECT. Edited by C. P. FREEMAN.London: The Royal College of Psychiatrists. 1995. 153 pp plus checklist. £14.99 (ph).

professionals to read this book and inform themselves about the details of temporal lobe epilepsy, hypoparathyroidism, sys temic lupus erythematosus etc., though curiously not about conditions which are obviously connected with women such as menopausal problems. These professionals are (probably wisely) advised how to phrase their requests to physicians to ask for investigations; they should refer to ‘¿ patients' and use medical rather than lay terms. To familiarise themselves further with the particular subject they should read nursing textbooks in the field. I remain unclear quite what the psy chiatrists are doing during all this, except for sometimes wrongly prescribing anti depressants. However, from the British point of view we can be grateful for our own system of general practitioners and pleased that at least our own psychiatric literature is quite considerably referred to.