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Hippocampal pyramidal neuron size was determined in all Cornu Ammonis subregions - CA1-CA4 - in five chronic schizophrenic men and compared with eight controls matched with respect to age and sex. Four out of five probands and the same eight controls had been examined in a previous study showing a significantly lower cell count and disorientation of pyramidal cells in the CA1- CA3 subregions of the schizophrenics. There was also a negative correlation between the total number of cells and the number of disoriented cells. In this study it was shown that the schizophrenic probands also had significantly smaller neurons in all subregions. There was a significant negative correlation between pyramidal neuron size and the number of disarrayed neurons in each subregion, and there was a significant positive correlation between neuron size and the total number of pyramidal cells in CA1 and CA2, but not in CA3 and CA4. The consistency of hippocampal anomalies in these schizophrenics is, thus, demonstrated by the statistical relations between the different parameters examined.

The concept of cycloid psychosis has gained increasing acceptance during recent decades. Using the diagnostic criteria of Perris and Brockington, an intelligible delineation of a group of patients has been obtained. Few epidemiological data on cycloid psychosis have been reported so far. The objective of the present study was to describe the one-year incidence of cycloid psychosis in a clinical sample. The diagnostic registers of all patients hospitalized for a functional or an organic psychosis and discharged in the year 1983, in Lund, Sweden were investigated. 514 patients were identified of whom 83 were admitted to hospital for the first time. 29 of these patients had a functional psychosis and were below the age of 50. In this age group 7 cases (4 women, 3 men) fulfilled the diagnostic criteria of cycloid psychosis and thus constituted almost one fourth of all first admissions of functional psychoses that year. The one-year incidence for first admission in cycloid psychosis was 5.0 per 100,000 inhabitants in women and 3.6 per 100,000 inhabitants in men within the age group 15-50 years in the catchment area of 163,175 persons. We conclude that cycloid psychosis constitutes a considerable proportion of functional psychoses in both sexes.

In recent years research on senile dementia of the Alzheimer type (SDAT) has made progress within the field of pathology and to a certain extent in that of heredity. Within epidemiology, the search for risk factors is intensifying but the findings are still inconclusive. The present study of possible risk factors concentrates on environmental and personality factors. The total population of 2612 persons from a geographically delimited area, Lundby, two neighbouring parishes in southern Sweden, was examined in 1957 by one psychiatrist (Hagnell). A follow-up study of the same population, irrespective of domicile, was performed 15 years later, in 1972. Various precipitating as well as protective personality background factors were found to be significant for the outcome of SDAT, but no environmental factors appeared to be statistically significant in this cohort.

In spite of the great impact of senile dementia of the Alzheimer type (SDAT) on society, far too little is known about its epidemiology. In this study of a total, normal population from a geographically delimited area in Sweden, Lundby, 2612 persons were examined in 1957 by one psychiatrist (Hagnell). In 1972 the same population was reexamined irrespective of domicile. The incidence and risk of contracting SDAT during the 15 years were calculated. No cases of SDAT were diagnosed before the age of 60 years. The lifetime risk was for men 25.7% and for women 26.2%. When only the very severely impaired were taken into account, the figures were 14.5% in men and 14.6% in women.