Review of the acute admissions of 442 foreign born in closed psychiatric wards (Antwerp, 1967-1975). Comparison to native borns for age, sex, descent and diagnosis.

After reviewing the literature on transcultural psychiatry, the admissions in the closed service of the Hospital Stuyvenberg in Antwerpen were analysed for 1967-1975. Immigrants were compared with other nationals, for age, sex and psychiatric diagnosis, with regard to patients born in Belgium. For the foreigners, statistical evaluation was done for age, sex, civil status, land of origin, and jewish religion. Interesting results were obtained for paranoid syndromes in patients originating from Eastern Europe and in menopaused women.

Influence of electrical stimulation of the posterior hypothalamus on musculocutaneous and renal circulation in anesthetized dogs.

Hypertension and tachycardia were consistently induced by electrical stimulation of the median posterior hypothalamus in dogs under chloralose anesthesia, curarized and artificially ventilated. When renal and femoral vascular beds were perfused at a constant blood flow, the renal perfusion pressure markedly increased, whereas only minor variations of the femoral perfusion pressure occurred. When the renal and femoral vessels were perfused by the heart at the prevailing blood pressure, peri-arterial electromagnetic flow measurements revealed that renal flow decreased and that femoral flow increased during hypothalamic hypertension, both before and after vagotomy. In the same animals, no significant changes of renal or femoral flow occurred during reflexogenic hypertension induced by carotid occlusion. These marked hemodynamic differences between the reflexogenic and the hypothalamic type of hypertension were consistently and repeatedly observed. The indications that baroreflex counter-regulation and ganglionic inhibition due to elevated catecholaminemia contribute to the relative lack of femoral vasoconstriction during hypothalamic hypertension, are discussed.