Writing about one's thoughts and feelings about being in hospital for a surgical operation has beneficial effects on postoperative course. This holds particularly true for high alexithymic subjects, who obtain through writing the same outcome as low alexithymic subjects.

The aim of this study was to assess the effects of the writing technique on postoperative course in interaction with different levels of risk. Participants were 40 urologic inpatients waiting to undergo transurethral resection of the prostate, with different levels of surgical risk as assessed with the Goldman Preoperative Risk Index (L. Goldman et al., 1978). Only 20 participants wrote for 3 days about the experience of being in the hospital. Measures were days of stay in the hospital after the operation, the Symptom Check List (SCL-90; L. R. Derogatis, 1977; Italian version: G. Magni, C. Messina, D. De Leo, A. Mosconi, & M. Carli, 1983) scores, and a medical evaluation of postoperative course. A significant positive effect of writing on all three dependent variables emerged only in low-risk participants. High-risk writing participants showed a nonsignificantly worse postoperative course on all parameters than did high-risk nonwriting participants. In highly stressful conditions, writing therefore should be employed only with caution.

The object of this paper was to study the brain stem evoked response in 20 patients suffering from chronic renal failure and having haemodialysis, and to evaluate the effects of this treatment. A further 5 successful renal transplant patients were investigated to analyse the evolution of the brain stem conduction when the metabolic abnormality is removed. In the first group, the responses were minimally abnormal in 30% of cases before the dialysis. The dialysis session showed an improvement of the brain stem conduction. This variation was temporary and, 24 hours following the dialysis treatment, the patients showed the pathological values observed before the dialysis. The results of the successful transplanted patients were consistent with the data obtained in the dialysis group. Before transplantation the nerve impulse conduction was found to be abnormal in 3 subjects. These abnormalities disappeared completely after successful transplantation. These results support the view of those who favour the use of evoked potentials to follow the status of the central nervous system in uraemic patients.

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