[Effect of assassination attempts on Lafontaine and Schäuble on public opinion about psychiatric patients. Part 1: 1990 development]. / Auswirkungen der Attentate auf Lafontaine und Schäuble auf die Einstellung der Bevölkerung zu psychisch Kranken. Teil 1: Die Entwicklung im Jahr 1990.

In 1990 two assassination attempts against prominent German politicians were carried out by mentally ill persons. In the same year we conducted three representative surveys of the adult population of the FRG (old Länder and West Berlin) which allowed us to investigate the impact of both events on the attitude of the public towards the mentally ill. Already shortly after the first violent attack there was a marked increase of social distance, i.e. those questioned were less willing to have contact with a schizophrenic man. After the second assassination attempt the tendency to reject such a person increased again significantly. This applied to all forms of relationships studied. The increase of social distance is explained by the re-activation of the stereotype of the dangerous and unpredictable "insane" person.

[Effects on assassination attempts on Lafontaine and Schäuble on public opinion about psychiatric patients. Part 2: 1991 development]. / Auswirkungen der Attentate auf Lafontaine und Schäuble auf die Einstellung der Bevölkerung zu psychisch Kranken. Teil 2: Die Entwicklung im Jahr 1991.

As reported in the first part of our paper, in reaction to two assassination attempts carried out on schizophrenic persons there was a marked increase of social distance of the German public towards schizophrenic persons. Based on two further inquiries we are able to show that social distance decreased slightly during the course of 1991, but at the end of the year was still increased as compared with the situation in early 1990 before the first assassination attempt occurred. There was a corresponding trend in the popular stereotype of psychiatric patients. Our findings indicate, however, that the increase of social distance was specific for schizophrenic behaviour, since no such development could be observed in relation to major depressive disorder, for which the degree of rejection by the public did not change during the study period. Comparison between the first and final surveys reveals that, besides those persons who had never had contact with psychiatric patients, those who were personally involved as patients or relatives also reacted to the acts of violence by an increase in social distance. Among those who themselves were providing professional or lay help, or who had psychiatric patients among their friends or acquaintances, in contrast, the degree of social distance remained unchanged.

[Normal values of the neutrophil granulocyte adhesion test in the peripheral blood of adults]. / Valori normale ale adultului la testarea capacitatii de aderare a granulocitelor neutrofile din sîngele periferic.

After emphasizing the importance of adhesion of cells to a substrate as fundamental biological phenomenon, the authors discuss recently published data concerning adhesion of human neutrophil granulocytes and the clinical implications of its deficiency, showing the method developed in the Center of Haematology, Bucharest, based upon the Taga-Sturdza procedure and the works of Gifford and Malawista. The study included 82 young healthy subjects. The normal mean adhesion index in women was 5.10 +/- 0.34 and in men 4.61 +/- 0.27; the statistical difference between the sexes is not significant. The proportion of NBT-positive adherent cells was 40--60% in both groups.