Behaviour therapy in psychiatric and mental handicap nursing

This paper presents an overview of the evaluation study conducted between November 1977 and December 1978. The study involved twenty nurses who had completed the Behaviour Therapy Course of the Scottish Committee for Clinical Nursing Studies. It provides an overview of the former students' engagement in behaviour therapy on completion of the course. The study was conducted approximately 6 months after each student had returned to their parent hospital, unit or to new posts. The information was collected by circulation of a questionnaire. The report summarizes the returns presented by the individual nurses. Additional information or comments were supplied by several of the former students: unsolicited communications of this nature are acknowledged where they appear in the text, by the indication of an asterisk.

Rabies archaeologorum

This paper falls a little outside the normal scope of a paper for the Chateau Gaillard conference. It may not even be a paper, but—to use contemporary language—rather an anti-paper. Possibly, it will shock some of the audience. If so, I would like to say that such people need the shock.

The paper will not bring news from excavations, neither any new interpretations nor suggestions for new excavations. On the contrary, it deals with what should be left unexcavated. I intend to advance the opinion that generally too much is too ruthlessly excavated in places where the archaeological remains are not threatened by destruction.

This last phrase is the important one. It is evident that where archaeological sites are going to be removed anyhow due to construction of new roads, building activities or whatever may be the cause, it will always be an act of merit to squeeze every piece of archaeological information out of them by excavation beforehand. Therefore, the points of view advanced in this paper do not comprise rescue operations, but only the excavation of sites protected by the law, or by considerate owners, and consequently not exposed to any immediate danger of removal or other destructive activities.

Behavior therapy for autistic children: a study of acceptability and outcome

An inpatient program for autistic children which used behavior modification methods is described, and a follow-up study of the first 15 children discharged from the program is reported. In general, the outcome results appear to be comparable to those of other treatment methods. A second main purpose of the study was to assess the acceptability of this program to parents and to document their impressions regarding their child's period of inpatient care. Overall, a high level of acceptability was found.

A study of the heights and weights of different groups of disturbed children

Mean centile heights and weights of 346 children referred to a child psychiatric clinic were recorded and compared with the psychiatric diagnoses of the children. Neurotic boys were found to have significantly greater mean centile heights than boys with (a) conduct disorders and (b) specific developmental disorders. No significant difference was found in the girls. The difference in boys' heights was not associated with any significant difference in social class, family size, or position in the family. No significant weight differences were found. The results are discussed, and it is concluded that the relationship between physical growth and psychiatric disorder in children merits further investigation.

A training scheme for child psychiatrists

In 1968 a new regional child psychiatry unit was opened in Birmingham, followed in 1969 by a regional adolescent unit. These events coincided with a general recognition of the need to train more child psychiatrists. It thus became possible to plan a new training scheme, using the new units, without the constraints which might have resulted from the existence of an established pattern of postgraduate training.

A controlled trial of haloperidol in children

A number of observations have appeared in the literature indicating that haloperidol may be of value in the treatment of children with certain types of behaviour disorder (Haberlandt, 1963; Rogers, 1965). There has, however, been a dearth of controlled observations to support these impressions, though there is evidence that the drug is of value in the tics of Gilles de la Tourette's disease (Connell et al., 1967). The present paper reports a controlled pilot study of haloperidol in overactive and aggressive children.