One of the central purposes of cross-cultural psychiatry is to scrutinize the sociocultural influences on the phenomenology of psychiatric diseases. On the other hand it is possible to lay bare a nucleus of symptoms, common to all cultures, which, independently of all influences, occupies a central position for an understanding of the disease considered. In this study an attempt was made to approach this problem by means of investigating the contents of delusion of schizophrenic patients in Austria and Pakistan. The contents of delusion among 126 Austrian and 108 Pakistani patients diagnosed as having schizophrenia according to DSM-III-R (art. 295) were compared following the classification of Huber and Gross. Additionally the kind of persecution and the type of the persecutor were registered. However it appeared that only a few contents of delusion are frequent in both countries. In both countries persecution was the most frequently mentioned content of delusion. The comparison of the contents of delusion revealed significantly higher frequencies of delusions of grandeur, guilt and religious delusions in Austrian patients. Significant differences could also be found with the kind of persecution and the persecutor’s type. Cultural factors seem to have a decisive influence on shaping the contents of delusion.

Adaptive behavior requires the integration of body movement and attention. Therefore, individual differences in integration of movement and attention during infancy may have significance for development. We contacted families whose 8-year-old children (n=26; 16 females, 10 males; mean age 8 y 2 mo, SD 8 mo) participated in a previous study of movement-attention coupling at 1 or 3 months of age, to assess parent-reported attention or hyperactivity problems using the Child Behavior Checklist and Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th edn) criteria. Parent-reported attention problems at 8 years of age were associated with less suppression of body movement at onset of looking, and greater rebound of body movement following its initial suppression at 3 months, but not at 1 month. Parent-reported hyperactivity was not related to any of the infant movement-attention measures. Results suggests that the dynamic integration of movement and attention early in life may have functional significance for the development of attention problems in childhood.

Adaptive behavior requires the integration of body movement and attention. Therefore, individual differences in integration of movement and attention during infancy may have significance for development. We contacted families whose 8‐year‐old children (n=26; 16 females, 10 males; mean age 8y 2mo, SD 8mo) participated in a previous study of movement‐attention coupling at 1 or 3 months of age, to assess parent‐reported attention or hyperactivity problems using the Child Behavior Checklist and Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th edn) criteria. Parent‐reported attention problems at 8 years of age were associated with less suppression of body movement at onset of looking, and greater rebound of body movement following its initial suppression at 3 months, but not at 1 month. Parent‐reported hyperactivity was not related to any of the infant movement–attention measures. Results suggests that the dynamic integration of movement and attention early in life may have functional significance for the development of attention problems in childhood.