Obsessionality and self-appraisal questionnaires

In an authoritative paper, Sandler and Hazari (1960) examined the responses of 100 neurotic patients to a personality questionnaire. The latter was in fact the Tavistock Self-Assessment Inventory, which consists of 867 statements each of which the subject is required to mark as “True” or “False” in regard to himself. Sandler and Hazari extracted responses to forty of these statements which were regarded as having reference to obsessive/compulsive character traits and symptoms, and subjected the data to factor analysis. Two factors were identified, and the original items were then classified according to their projection on two reference vectors, A and B, obtained through rotation of the Centroid factor axes through 45°. The two groups of items represented “two tendencies which, in their appearance in this group of patients, appear to be more or less unrelated”.

Psychiatric service in 1967 at the Royal Infirmary of Endiburgh

The psychiatric service provided at a large teaching hospital is reviewed. Epidemiological features are reported on the patients seen from 4 sources: poisoning treatment centre; general wards; psychiatric out-patient clinic; and accident and emergency department.

Substantial increase in the referral rates from the first two sources is noted. Distributions of the diagnoses are given, with details of the further management offered.