IQ: R.I.P

In the early decades of this century, "IQ," as score and concept, not only satisfied psychology's need for metrical respectability, but it caught the public's fancy and rapidly became a household word. Reified in many popular tests, it has withstood onslaughts from factor analysis, from concerned social scientists, from judicial fiat, and from scientific knowledge about mental abilities, brain functions, and neuropathology. In neuropsychological practice its use--and that of any scores representing sums or averages of disparate data obtained from tests of brain functions and mental abilities--can obscure specific facets of a subject's neuropsychological status or misrepresent it generally. This 70-year-old concept has outlived its usefulness. Neuropsychology needs to seek more appropriate alternatives to the IQ for describing and conceptualizing mental functioning.     

Overview: maintenance therapy in psychiatry: I. Schizophrenia.

Hospital psychiatry has evolved from long-term "treatment" programs that were primarily custodial to the successful pharmacological treatment of acute psychotic episodes. Unfortunately, many patients still return to the hospital with relapses. This so-called revolving door syndrome draws attention to the critical importance of preventing as well as treating acute episodes. In the first part of this overview, the author reviews the clinical literature on prophylactic treatment of schizophrenia with maintenance antipsychotic drugs. The second part will review the literature on prophylactic treatment of affective disorders with lithium and tricyclics. In the opinion of the author these drugs provide the potential for truly preventive psychiatry.