The purpose of this article is to review the whole literature on pathological fire-setting and related fields since 1951 in order to present a state of the art picture of our contemporary knowledge about this phenomenon. Papers were initially selected by using a Medline search. From the articles obtained in this way the references had to be pursued, because many relevant papers and books in this research field of different scientific and practical disciplines are not listed in conventional literature services. Finally, only those contributions were selected which provided new information when published, by original research, theoretical interpretation or practical implications. The last forty years have brought a growing body of data and understanding--especially concerning pathological fire-setting by children--etiology, and therapy, which often proves successful. The situation remains unclear for arson by psychologically disturbed adults and we still have a poor understanding of arson without apparent motive. There is a conflict of opinion as to whether adult fire-setters are suitable for therapy and therapeutic efforts dealing with psychologically disturbed adults are rare. With increasing knowledge about child fire-setting and its successful treatment, etiological and therapeutic models for adult fire-setting behaviour may be developed. Research into the latter area should focus on both biographical and social conditions of development from childhood on as well as biological measures. Both will be reviewed here.

To study the social and psychological consequences of induced abortion on the relationship between the pregnant woman and her partner, 92 patients seeking a socially indicated abortion, who had a stable partner at the time of abortion, were interviewed. Standardized psychological measures were used to assess their partnerships before abortion and on follow-up 1 year later. A control group of 92 patients (matched for age, marital status, duration of partnership, number of children, and educational background), drawn from a larger sample of women using safe contraceptive methods, completed the same psychological measures. Prior to abortion, partnerships in the study group showed considerably more conflicts and were less harmonious than in the control group. One year after the abortion, the number of separations in the study group was not significantly higher than in the control group, nor were there any remaining qualitative differences in the partnerships of either group. When separations occurred, they had been more frequently initiated by women in the study group than in the control group.

In general, meningopolyradiculitis (Bannwarth's syndrome, stage 2 of neuroborreliosis) follows a predictable monophasic self-limiting course. In contrast, we report the case of a patient with an untreated meningopolyradiculitis which evolved into acute schizophrenia-like psychosis due to persistent infection with Borrelia burgdorferi. The psychosis resolved within 1 week of treatment with ceftriaxone. This case shows that the usually benign monophasic meningopolyradiculitis may progress to severe CNS complications, which may have implications on current pathophysiological beliefs.

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