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Idiopathic Parkinson's disease (PD) is a multisytem degenerative disorder. In addition to motor symptoms such as akinesia, rigidity and tremor, various non-motor symptoms occur, which are still insufficiently diagnosed. Moreover, the frequently used scales and scores do not adequately detect these non-motor symptoms. The Non-motor Symptoms Questionnaire (NMSQuest) is an established self-completed patient questionnaire with 30 qualitative questions covering all important non-motor symptoms of PD. The Non-motor Symptoms Scale (NMSScale) is a grade rating scale for estimating the frequency and severity of non-motor symptoms in PD. Since there are only original English versions of both questionnaires available, self-translated versions were frequently used or the questionnaires were not used at all in native German patients. We used international guidelines for cross-cultural adaptation of questionnaires to provide standard versions of both non-motor symptoms questionnaires in the German language.

We report on our ongoing efforts in obtaining the IR-spectra of the linear carbon cluster molecules Cn with n=8-13. So far C8, C9, C10, and C13 have been recorded at Cologne. With the exception of C8 all assignments have been secured. For C8 a tentative assignment could be derived with the bandcenter of the sigmau antisymmetric stretching mode located at nu0=2067.9779 cm(-1) and a preliminary rotational constant in the vibrational ground state of B"=0.02068 cm(-1). The measured signal to noise ratio of the ro-vibrational band is fairly weak and thus the lower J ro-vibrational transitions can not be assigned with certainty. As a consequence the band center remains uncertain by 4 J or 0.17 cm(-1). For a more reliable assignment the sensitivity of the system has to be increased by at least one order of magnitude. The envisaged sensitivity increase of our experiment will be discussed along with the intention to perform terahertz observations of the low energetic bending ro-vibrational spectra. These sub-mm wave measurements will be carried out simultaneously with the IR measurements.

This is a report on the authors' experience over two years in developing a new way to deal with patient suicides in a District Psychiatric Hospital. The main aim of the Suicide Counselling Session is to help the involved hospital ward teams to overcome the strain, doubt and psychological burden often caused by the suicide of a patient. The authors describe the institutional conditions and setting in which a Suicide Counselling Session takes place. The method is characterised by a special attitude and the ideas of "Reflecting Team" to bring the involved stress factors into the open.

Day hospital treatment for psycho-geriatric patients in the Federal Republic of Germany started in 1976. At present (October 1991) 13 psychogeriatric day hospitals are established. The day hospitals offer a wide range of diagnostic and therapeutic strategies. Though they are expected to be of great importance especially for the elderly, day hospitals don't play a significant part within the care system for psycho-geriatric patients in Germany. It seems to be recommendable, to establish more psycho-geriatric day hospitals, especially together with an out-patient department and an information centre ("Geronto-psychiatrisches Zentrum"). In addition the care system should be supplied with day centres, in particular for those patients suffering from chronic paranoid psychosis or dementia; the medical care of out-patients should be improved. Besides that the efficacy of day hospital treatment for psycho-geriatric patients should be evaluated.