: Although there is a notable decline in islet function after islet auto transplant, there is still evidence of significant long-term insulin secretion and possible protection against diabetic complications.

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Objective To investigate and compare the demographic and psychosocial profiles of women with chronic pelvic pain, chronic pain in a different site, and those with no history of pain with specific reference to a history of sexual abuse.Design A prospective comparative study.Setting Pelvic Pain Clinic at Leicester General Hospital NHS Trust, Pain Management Clinic at LeicesterRoyal Infirmary NHS Trust and two General Practices.Participants Thirty women with chronic pelvic pain, 30 women with chronic pain in a different site and 30 women attending their general practitioner with no history of pain.Interventions A specifically designed patient profile questionnaire to identify and explore incidents of sexual and physical abuse was administered to each woman by a research psychologist for confidential self-completion. Data were also collected on other demographic, medical and psychosocial characteristics.Results Women with chronic pelvic pain were found to have a higher lifetime prevalence of sexual abuse, involving penetration or other genital contact compared with the two comparison groups. The prevalence of physical abuse was the same in all groups. Women in the pelvic pain group were more likely to have approached their GP for symptoms not related to pelvic pain than women in the other two groups and the incidence of clinical anxiety was significantly higher in this group compared with the pain-free group. The prevalence of sexual problems was much higher in the group with pelvic pain compared with the other two groups.Conclusion These findings indicate that women with chronic pelvic pain have a higher incidence of past sexual abuse compared with women in a comparison pain group and with women with no pain.

Seventy-six wives of patients suffering a first myocardial infarction were studied by questionnaire 6 weeks after their husbands went home. Despite the routine provision of support and information to spouses during their husband's stay in hospital, a high proportion reported physical and emotional symptoms of stress. The majority of wives felt they were poorly informed about myocardial infarction, had not had enough opportunity to ask the experts questions, and had received most support from relatives. The reasons for these findings are discussed and suggestions for early and systematic nursing intervention are made in an attempt to reduce stress and prevent the development of unhealthy patterns of behaviour.

The LWMS course is one model which might be used to begin the process of encouraging medical students to develop ways of appropriately managing their responsibilities in relation to human sexuality.

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The loss of a pregnancy in the first trimester is a common event and recent research has identified high levels of psychological distress amongst women who have miscarried. We believe this study is the first to examine the phenomenon from a longitudinal perspective using standardized measures. A sample of 65 women was rated for anxiety and depression using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale at intervals of one, six and 12 weeks following early miscarriage. The results indicate that a large proportion of the sample had clinically important levels of anxiety (41 per cent) and depression (22 per cent) in the first week following miscarriage, which declined to 32 per cent and 6 per cent respectively by the 12th week. No association was observed between levels of psychological morbidity and a number of social and obstetric variables, the only exception being whether or not the pregnancy had been planned. These results are discussed with reference to the relevant literature. The possible implications for further research and clinical practice are addressed.

A new interview based clinical rating scale for use with eating disordered patients is described. Two preliminary studies of interrater reliability gave satisfactory results. The Clinical Eating Disorders Rating Instrument (CEDRI) is offered as a possible tool for both clinical and research use.