We describe the design of a random allocation prospective treatment study comparing three modalities of care and a nontreatment control. Problems encountered in the execution of this study are discussed.
Twenty‐one percent of 246 consecutive female anorexics seen at a specialist clinic were married. Married and single adult anorexics (controlled for duration of illness) were compared on illness and personal and family background variables. Features of illness were similar in both groups, with only an equivocal excess of bulimic habits in married women. They differed, however, in age of onset of anorexia nervosa and in family background. Married women became anorexic significantly later than single women. The families of origin of married women showed a trend toward less conflict and less conflict avoidance. They were significantly less enmeshed than those of single women and there was a tendency for more married womens' parents to break up and remarry. We discuss how the family dynamics, which seem to differentiate the two groups, may determine whether or not the woman marries and the timing of the onset of her illness in relation to marriage.
Sexual and endocrine function in a geographically defined population of male patients receiving depot neuroleptic medication were studied (n = 119). It was predicted that psychosexual arousability would be reduced in this patient group, perhaps because of the endocrine effects of medication. Arousability was measured in 63 patients (53% of the population) using a validated questionnaire of sexual function for which normative data were available (Sexuality Experience Scales, SES 2). Blood levels of prolactin, testosterone and gonadotrophins were assayed. Physical sexual dysfunction was common, as was endocrine dysfunction. However, the sample's mean score on the global arousability scale was not significantly different from the normative mean. Arousability was negatively correlated with age and positively correlated with frequency of spontaneous penile erections, but not significantly correlated with endocrine variables or exposure to neuroleptic medication. These results suggest that sexual arousability in response to imagined or audio-visual erotic stimuli is surprisingly unimpaired in medicated male patients suffering from chronic mental illness.
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