Religious patients with generalized anxiety disorder were given religious psychotherapy in addition to supportive psychotherapy anxiolytic drugs. Those receiving religious psychotherapy showed significantly more rapid improvement in anxiety symptoms than those who received supportive psychotherapy and drugs only. Thus, religious patients may require a different form of psychotherapy.

This study was conducted to explore the outcome of psychotherapy in ethnic Malays with strong religious and cultural background. The patients were divided into two groups. The study and control groups consisted of 32 depressed patient each. In the study group brief psychotherapy of 15–20 sessions was attempted with the addition of a religious perspective, while in the control group the religious perspective was omitted. Patients in the study group showed more rapid improvement in the initial 3 months of the study period than those in the control group, but at the end of the 6 months the difference became nonsignificant.

This study was aimed at determining the effect of psychotherapy in patients in bereavement. Fifteen patients in a control group were given brief psychotherapy and 15 study group patients received psychotherapy with a religious perspective. The patients in the study group showed consistently significant improvements as compared with the control group at the end of 6 months. The results indicate that highly religious patients with grief and bereavement tend to improve faster when a religious psychotherapy is added to a cognitive-behaviour approach.

There is increasing evidence that genetic factors play a role in the etiology of schizophrenic disorders. One thousand eighty-nine first-degree relatives of schizophrenics and 1,137 controls were studied to discover their psychiatric morbidity. Psychiatric morbidity was found in 16.34% of the first-degree relatives (FDR) of schizophrenics (parents, 5.69%; siblings, 7.71%; offspring, 2.94%) as compared to 6.9% in the controls (P < 0.001). Schizophrenia was found in 8.3% of the patient group, which was significantly higher (0.2%) as compared to the controls. Schizoid-schizotypal personality disorder was found in 3.03% of FDRs of the schizophrenic group. Depressive disorder was found in 4.4% and 2.1% in the control and patient group, respectively, which was statistically significant. Morbidity risk of schizophrenia was found in 16.97%, 6.22% and 5.79% of schizophrenia, schizoid-schizotypal personality disorder and depressive disorder, respectively, in the FDR of schizophrenic group.

Delusion of pregnancy is not a common phenomenon. Some cases have been reported [1], many of them on male patients. Delusions of pregnancy have been reported in fictional psychosis [2] and a wide variety of organic psychiatric conditions [1], including association with urinary tract infection [3]. It has been reported, more commonly in men than in women [4,5]. We report a patient of schizophrenia experiencing delusion of pregnancy that he attributed to sexual abuse occurring 10 years previously.A 3 6 -y e a r-old single man living in supported accommodation presented with acute psychosis characterised by being abusive towards strangers and coresidents, shadow boxing in the front garden, marked i r r i t a b i l i t y, poor sleep, and talk of a gay man following him around. He had complained of abdominal pain, which he believed was in the context of him being pregnant. He had nightmares and ruminations about his sexual abuse many years ago. He also had a background of mild to moderate intellectual disability.He had a past history of a similar episode in which he experienced aggression, was suicidal and had homicidal ideations. He believed that he had been pregnant for 2-3 months and his abdomen was swollen due to spontaneous fertilisation. His mother was diagnosed as having schizophrenia. Ten years ago he had experienced sexual abuse involving penetration. Since then, he had developed a delusional belief about pregnancy when unwell. There was no history of drug or alcohol abuse.Mental State Examination revealed him to be older than his age and guarded. He had ideas of reference, delusion of pregnancy, persecutory delusions, auditory hallucinations and poor insight. He was diagnosed as having schizophrenia and treated with antipsychotic medications. He showed a gradual response, and in 3 weeks his delusions started diminishing. His belief of pregnancy changed to an overvalued idea, and after 2 months he no longer believed in it.Delusion of pregnancy attributed to sexual abuse in men (as in the case above) has not been reported. It is interesting that in both episodes the patient exhibited this delusion, although the sexual abuse occurred 10 years previously. The delusion in this patient could not be attributed to other factors such as contact with pregnant women [5], underlying a medical cause [3].