Times in remission from affective illness were prolonged during treatment with lithium carbonate and carbamazepine, but lithium was the more effective. Similar global scores for the two drugs suggested that other factors may determine their acceptability.

Evidence for a pseudoautosomal locus for a schizophrenia susceptibility gene was sought by two forms of analysis of 25 multiply affected families. Firstly, in the sample as a whole there was an excess of same-sex over mixed-sex siblings compared with that expected. Secondly, linkage analysis was performed in six of the families. The genotypes were studied for DXYS14, a highly polymorphic marker in the telomeric pseudoautosomal region. No evidence for positive linkage was found with two-point analysis under eight different genetic models for the mode of transmission. A non-parametric, sibling-pair analysis also failed to detect linkage. Our findings provide no evidence for linkage within the pseudoautosomal region; same-sex concordance must arise from some other mechanism.

SynopsisThe nutritional status of 23 severely demented patients was compared with that of 23 similarly aged controls in the community. A 3-day weighed intake on all subjects showed lower mean intakes of energy, protein, ascorbic acid and nicotinic acid in the patient group. This group had lower levels of plasma ascorbic acid and red cell folate and of urinary N-methylnicotinamide excretion relative to creatinine. Over a third of both controls and patients had evidence of thiamin deficiency, as judged by a raised percentage erythrocyte transketolase activity. An earlier finding in patients with senile dementia of reduced fasting plasma concentrations of tryptophan was confirmed for total and protein bound fractions. With the possible exception of ascorbic acid, the data could not be explained satisfactorily in terms of intake. It is suggested that the association between the phenomena of ageing, senile dementia and nutritional status merits further investigation.