Roy Hullin

Absorption of lithium following administration of slow-release and conventional preparations

The plasma lithium levels of 18 subjects receiving one standard and two slow-release preparations of lithium carbonate were measured at frequent intervals during the 24 hours following oral ingestion of a single dose of the drug. Although the slow-release tablets showed slow-release in vitro, this was not so in vivo. One slow-release preparation, in particular, was ineffectively absorbed by some subjects. There was no difference in the rate of absorption and excretion between the other slow-release product and the standard BP preparation. The implications of the results are discussed.

The distribution and binding of lithium following its long-term administration

Abstract Rats treated with lithium have a high concentration of the element in bone. Bone is the only tissue in which lithium may be detected seven weeks after cessation of lithium administration. A post-mortem study of bone from a patient previously undergoing lithium therapy indicates a long-term retention of lithium.

A Randomly Controlled Trial of Two Court Procedures in Truancy

In 1975 juvenile court magistrates, working in the City of Leeds in the north of England, agreed to carry out an investigation, using random allocation, to evaluate two judicial procedures which they normally used with children brought to court for failure to attend school under care proceedings. The study of these two procedures lasted about a year.

Effect of lithium salts on uptake of I125 by rat thyroid gland

Abstract The effect of lithium salts on the uptake of I 125 by rat thyroid has been studied. A single-dose of lithium resulted in reduced excretion and raised blood concentrations of the radio-isotope after 24 hours associated with an increased I 125 uptake by the thyroid. Lithium treatment for 5–8 days resulted in a marked decrease of the 24 hour uptake and a lower rate of turnover of I 125 by the thyroid with no effect on the blood level or urinary excretion of the radio-isotope. The reduction in iodide uptake by the thyroid was also observed in rats which had therapeutic levels of lithium in the drinking water for 10–25 weeks.

Are Interim Care Orders Necessary to Improve School Attendance in Truants Taken to Juvenile Court

Abstract Seventy‐eight children were randomly assigned to an ‘interim care order’ (N = 42) procedure or a ‘repeated adjournments’ (N = 36) procedure. Within each group, children were randomly allocated to an ‘interview’ or ‘non‐interview’ condition. Two outcome measures, level of school attendance and criminal offending, were used to evaluate the two procedures and the effect of interviewing. Interim care orders were found to be no more effective than repeated adjournments in improving school attendance or in reducing the number of criminal offences committed subsequently. However, a general decline in criminal offending, following the start of court adjournments was noted in both groups. Interviewing of parents had no significant effect in improving the school attendance of their children either independently or in interaction with the experimental procedures.

School attendance, visits by EWOs and appearances in juvenile court

Summary Two groups of schoolchildren were studied from the point of view of visits from the educational welfare service and coming to juvenile court for failure to attend school. One cohort of about 1800 children was looked at over three years from age 14 and another of approximately 1900 was surveyed over two years from the same age. It was found that when school attendance fell below 90 per cent the particular school was an important factor influencing whether a visit by an educational welfare officer (EWO) was attempted. However, there was a very clear relationship between going to court and the severity of the school attendance problem once a visit by an EWO had been attempted.

Juvenile delinquency and failure to attend school

Summary School attendance over a period of several weeks was studied in a group of 435 boys and 65 girls convicted of offences in the juvenile courts of a large industrial city in the North of England. Attendance figures for comparison were available from: (1) middle and secondary schools of the city; (2) a particular group of ten schools; and (3) children in the same class as a group of young people taken to court under care proceedings for failure to attend school. Delinquents attended school considerably less than expected. Neither the sex of delinquents nor the types of offence committed by them were related to school attendance.

Arginine vasopressin in manic-depressive psychosis

Urinary excretions of arginine vasopressin (AVP), sodium, potassium, osmoles and creatinine were measured in three in-patients with bipolar manic-depressive psychosis on at least eight 24-hour periods in each affective phase. Mood and body weight were recorded twice daily. The excretion by each patient of sodium, water and osmoles was greater in mania than during depression. Comparison of electrolytes and osmoles suggested that the increase was due to increased intake of salt and water rather than of total diet. There was a fall of mean AVP excretion during mania, the magnitude of the fall being related to the increase of water throughput. Compared with controls, AVP excretion was high and variable. It did not show the normal relationship to urine osmolality. Days with very high AVP were not associated with any characteristic feature of the other measurements; nor were they confined to any one point in the manic-depressive cycle. AVP does not appear to play a major role in the salt and water changes characteristic of manic-depressive psychosis and we have no evidence of its having any direct relationship to mood changes. We suggest that the observed abnormalities of AVP excretion are another manifestation of the central defect of this disease.

The relationship of exercise response to personality

In an experiment to investigate the relationship of exercise response to the personality dimensions of introversion-extraversion and neuroticism, 30 subjects filled in an Eysenck Personality Inventory and were later given a standard amount of exercise on a bicycle ergometer, with blood samples being taken before and afterwards to be analysed for lactate and glucose. A highly significant positive correlation was found between neuroticism and the change in blood glucose and a highly significant curvilinear relationship between neuroticism and the increase in blood lactate, with the largest increases in lactate occurring at the extremes of the neuroticism scale. No significant relationship was found between introversion-extraversion and either of the biochemical variables. Hypotheses are put forward to account for the relationship between neuroticism and the change in blood glucose in terms of the action of adrenaline in releasing glucose from the liver, and to account for the relationship between neuroticism and the increase in blood lactate in terms of differing rates of pulmonary ventilation during and after exercise.

Frequency of Adjournment

Two further randomly controlled trials, carried out by juvenile court magistrates in Leeds to evaluate different forms of the adjournment procedure, are outlined in this chapter. Having established the supremacy of adjournment over supervision, magistrates in Leeds virtually abandoned supervision orders in dealing with truants and employed adjournment almost exclusively. A survey carried out a few months after the prospective trial comparing adjournment and supervision had been completed showed that the satisfactory response of children to the adjournment procedure in terms of school attendance had been maintained. Nevertheless, it became increasingly apparent that some magistrates were routinely adjourning the case for a month, believing this to be the best way of using adjournment. Conversely, other magistrates appeared to be equally convinced that children should come back to court after a week, and only if improvement had occurred would they make an adjournment for a fortnight. Subsequently, with continuing satisfactory progress, the fortnight was extended to 3 weeks and likewise, eventually, monthly adjournments were made.