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IN ADDITION TO passive electroencephalography, activated brain electrical responses to sensory stimulation and cognition can now be recorded. Responses emerge as stimulus or as event-relate devoked-potential small microvolt patterns buried [...]

To assure the consumer of the highest quality costeffective mental health care, the author argues for the use of a proper "medical model" when care is delivered. He also argues that psychiatrists must deal with the whole person—both his psyche and his soma. The author discusses the role of the medically oriented psychiatrist, and presents a case study that demonstrates the interplay between a patient's psyche and soma. In addition, he introduces a four-step principle, to be incorporated into all health insurance plans, that will ensure that a patient's physical and psychological problems will be dealt with together and that he will receive quality health care.

Sending voice messages over pairs of channels makes available more channels for communication than would be possible if channels were used in a conventional manner and only one message was sent over one channel. Although this means that all channels under the dual channel system must carry several messages simultaneously, it is shown that for subjects wearing earphones, message intelligibility remains remarkably higher than if the same number of messages are sent over a single channel. The superiority of the dual channel method is attributed primarily to the unique capability of the human ear-brain system to perceive diotic signals as being located in the center of the head while all dichotic signals are perceived as being off to the side of the head. Where seven voices are talking simultaneously intelligibility of messages under the dual channel method of transmission is about 94 percent as compared to 11 percent under the single channel method.Practical implications of these findings for a number of military and civilian communication situations are discussed.

Serum immunoglobulin levels, determined by radial immunodiffusion, were correlated with clinical course in a group of newly admitted acutely ill male schizophrenic patients, whether treated with chlorpromazine or drug-free. The lgG, lgA, and lgM levels were significantly elevated in this population of schizophrenic patients as compared with normal controls. Patients with levels of both lgG and lgA below the median were significantly more likely to show clinical improvement during course of hospitalization than those in whom either or both imminoglobulin levels were above the median.

Evaluation can help control costs of mental health care and ensure that services are effective. The author presents guidelines to aid mental health administrators in establishing evaluation programs. He discusses factors in assessing costs and effectiveness, unusual research strategies, and the need for adequate support for evaluation research.

Differences in auditory signal detection between paranoid and nonparanoid schizophrenics were examined on and off phenothiazine medication.Compared to normals: (1) paranoids detected signals less accurately and used more conservative decision-making criteria; (2) nonparanoids detected signals less accurately under easy signal-to-noise (S/N) conditions but as well as normals under difficult conditions, they were neither more nor less conservative in the criteria they adopted; and (3) paranoid and nonparanoid subjects had a constant number of commission errors under all S/N conditions, while normals showed an increase with each decrease in S/N ratio.No significant overall effect of phenothiazine medication on the signal-detection performance of schizophrenics was found. A significant interaction between dosage level and diagnosis was found. The signal-detection measure (d') does not appear to be a direct measure of sensory sensitivity in schizophrenics.

Various approaches to evaluating community mental health services are presented. Cost-effectiveness analysis is discussed in terms of its relation to evaluation, and several types of relevant economic variables are described. Some problems in evaluating community mental health services are discussed. The major section presents specific approaches to evaluation, which are classified according to whether they are concerned with program structure, program process, or program outcome. Program outcome studies (in conjunction with process analyses) that include consideration of economic variables are viewed as most desirable, although the difficulties associated with performing such studies are recognized.

IN THIS STUDY an investigation is made of the effects of chlorpromazine, perphenazine, and sodium pentobarbital on the ability of acute schizophrenic patients to attend to one of a varying number of competing voice messages. Also, comparative analyses are made of the performance of acute and chronic schizophrenic patients and normal subjects on a similar task when no drugs are employed. Analyses are made of both intelligibility scores and omission errors.Rappaport1 has reported that when several simultaneous voices are presented through earphones so that only one voice is diotic (appears in both ears simultaneously) while competing voices are dichotic (simultaneous but different voices in each ear), chlorpromazine (50% mg) impairs the intelligibility scores of normal subjects but does not appear to have any effect on the scores of chronic schizophrenic patients. When drugs are not employed, normal subjects perform consistently, if not always