Schizo-affective disorder (Schneiderian positive), manic type: a comparison with mania.

Manic patients with (N = 12) and without (N = 27) Schneiderian first rank symptoms (SFRS) were compared with regard to age, age at illness onset, presence of good prognostic signs, psychopathologic variables, treatment, and family history. The lack of group differences seen on many variables is consistent with the notion that SFRS do not define a separate schizo-affective manic subtype with differences in etiology or outcome.

Severe neurotoxicity and lithium therapy.

The patient, a manic depressive who was treated with lithium for three years, suddenly developed severe neurotoxicity and a glomerulonephritis-like syndrome. The author believes that the lithium toxicity was facilitated by hot weather with excessive sweating, gall bladder pathology with fever, and decreased water and salt intake. The patient improved except for a persistent hypertension. Propranolol not only improved the hypertension but alleviated a lithium-induced tremor as well.

Cancer, emotions and mental illness: the present state of understanding.

The authors review recent and current literature on the relationship between psychological factors and cancer. They discuss the roles of predisposing personality patterns and emotional stress in the development, site, and course of cancer; the influence of awareness of terminal illness on the behavior of cancer patients; and the management of psychiatric symptoms in these patients.