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As a consequence of international student assessment programmes (e. g. PISA) the state has taken various measures to improve the quality of school education. Educationalists as well as physical education teachers, though, strongly warn not to simply reduce school education to testable and measurable parameters but demand a self-contained and problem-oriented learning which will lead to an education allowing children to get an insight into today's society and to develop an understanding for all its facets. The creation of a suitable teaching plan must be seen in close relation to the respective concept of education and in terms of physical education the concept of movement. If education is seen as self-education und movement as a medium of communication between child and its surrounding world, then children can only develop competences concerning their motor skills in situations that demand problem-solving as well as experimenting. The author outlines in short basic assumptions concerning physical education and then gives an example which explains the pedagogical importance of a didactic concept based on the conditions mentioned above. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The enhancement of GABAergic neurotransmission has been closely linked to antipanic drug efficacy. This is the first study to investigate a putative association of exonic sequence variants of the human GABA(B) receptor 1 (GABA(B)R1) gene and susceptibility to panic disorder. Three DNA sequence variants in exons 1a1, 7 and 11 were assessed by polymerase chain reaction-based restriction fragment length polymorphism in a case-control study among patients with panic disorder with and without agoraphobia (DSM III-R criteria) and blood donors. There was no indication of an increased vulnerability to panic disorder or agoraphobia with respect to the allelic variants under study.

In a polydiagnostic study, a systematically recruited collective of 34 women with a first-episode postpartum psychosis was reexamined after a period of 6-26 years (averaging 12.6 years) in order to establish lifetime-diagnoses according to ICD-10 and Leonhard's classification, and to determine course and outcome. According to ICD-10, unipolar depressive disorders (32%) and acute polymorphous psychotic disorders (28%) represented the most frequent diagnoses. Applying Leonhard's classification revealed a marked predominance of cycloid psychoses (62%) with the subform of motility psychosis being the most frequent diagnosis (38%). Schizophrenias occurred rarely according to both classifications. Investigating the long-term course, we found in 59% multiphasic disorders. The mean number of episodes per patient was 2.5 (range 2-6) with a mean duration of 9.8 weeks (SD = 5.2). 6 patients (18%) had undergone a monophasic course, in 4 cases (12%) the course was not determinable. 17 women (50%) had 19 further deliveries during the follow-up period. The frequency of relapses in connection with a further delivery was 47%. Administering the Strauss-Carpenter-Outcome-Scale revealed a favourable outcome with a mean value of 14.1 (SD = 2.83) for our total sample. Only 4 patients (12%) had never recovered fully since the onset of the illness. Our findings suggest that cycloid psychoses, in particular motility psychoses, account for the majority of postpartum psychoses, and do not support the hypothesis of a nosological independence of postpartum psychoses. They provide further evidence of a favourable prognosis of severe postpartum psychiatric disorder despite a relatively high rate of non-puerperal and especially puerperal relapses.

In a family study involving 83 probands with periodic catatonia a subtype of DSM IIIR schizophrenia, we reported an age-specific morbidity risk of 26.9% in first-degree relatives with homotypical psychoses and genetic anticipation indicating a possible major gene effect. Paternal transmission was associated with a trend for a younger age at onset in probands compared to that observed in the case of maternal transmission (P = 0.099). If this can be confirmed in a larger sample and then replicated, there would be evidence for the occurrence of a parent-of-origin effect. Such an observation may indicate that a paternally imprinted locus acts on periodic catatonia. Among the non-genetic mechanisms that may modify the penetrance of the disease, paternal affection did lead to a decrease in male offspring (P = 0.007) and maternal affection showed an increased frequency of non-affected male offspring (P = 0.021). We therefore propose that parent-of-origin effects as well as prenatal mortality and psychosocial factors need further investigation in the periodic catatonia subtype of schizophrenia.

Objective: The authors report on a systematic twin study of index twins suffering from schizophrenia spectrum psychoses. Using different diagnostic systems, they examined twin concordance, family history, and the frequency and severity of the birth complications of 22 monozygotic and 23 dizygotic twin pairs., Method: All twins in the region of Lower Franconia, Germany, born after 1930 and hospitalized for psychiatric disease were ascertained. The zygosity diagnoses were based on molecular genetic methodology and a zygosity questionnaire. Two psychiatrists, working independently, formulated diagnoses according to DSM-III-R criteria and Leonhard's nosology., Results: There were substantially different concordance rates with regard to diagnostic subgroups, and monozygotic concordance was significantly higher than dizygotic concordance in only two of the following five subgroups (subgroups 1 and 3): 1) strict schizophrenia according to DSM-III-R: monozygotic, 85.7%, dizygotic, 25.0%; 2) schizophreniform, schizoaffective, and delusional (paranoid) disorders and psychotic disorder not otherwise specified according to DSM-III-R: monozygotic, 47.1%, dizygotic, 30.8%; 3) unsystematic schizophrenia according to Leonhard: monozygotic, 88.9%, dizygotic, 25.0%; 4) systematic schizophrenia according to Leonhard: monozygotic pairs lacking, dizygotic, 0%; 5) cycloid psychoses according to Leonhard: monozygotic, 38.5%, dizygotic, 36.4%. In the case of cycloid psychoses and conditions less prominent in DSM-III-R schizophreniform, schizoaffective, and delusional (paranoid) disorders and psychotic disorder not otherwise specified, the affected twins had suffered significantly more severe birth complications than their healthy partners. Not one of the 37 monozygotic twins was diagnosed as having systematic schizophrenia, whereas six of the 25 dizygotic index twins received this diagnosis., Conclusions: The results of the study suggest that schizophrenia spectrum psychoses may consist of clinically and etiologically heterogeneous subgroups with different genetic backgrounds.

Sex differences with regard to age at first hospitalization and residual symptomatology were investigated in 54 long-term hospitalized chronic schizophrenics. Patients fulfilled diagnostic criteria of DSM-III, Kraepelin's dementia praecox and Leonhard's group of schizophrenias as well. The severe residual psychopathology necessitated continuous hospitalization in all the patients. The 27 women and 27 men neither differed in duration of illness or period of hospitalization nor in their social environment. We found that women were older than men at their first hospitalization and exhibited more marked positive symptomatology during the course and in the residual state than men. However, regardless of the residual symptomatology, men generally received more neuroleptics. A classification of the schizophrenic patients by means of the Leonhard criteria revealed that unsystematic schizophrenics (affect-laden paraphrenia, periodic catatonia, cataphasia) of both sexes were significantly (p less than 0.001) more often married at the time of first hospitalization than were systematic schizophrenics. Further, there was an overwhelming preponderance of women among the group of affect-laden paraphrenia and, conversely, of men in the group of periodic catatonia. Presuming different etiology in affect-laden paraphrenia and periodic catatonia, our findings suggest a significantly varied frequency in the rate in which women and men are afflicted by heterogeneous subgroups of schizophrenia.