The significance of affective symptoms in old age; a follow-up study of one hundred patients. Institute of Psychiatry. Maudsley Monographs No 10. By Felix Post. 107 p. $7. Oxford University Press, 417 5th Ave, New York 16, 1962
From England come two interesting books dealing with opposite ends of the life cycle. Apley and MacKeith, both pediatricians, present a delightful guide to help doctors understand and care for children, while Post, a physician at Bethlem Royal and Maudsley Hospitals, offers a careful investigation of depression in the aged.
Although the emphasis in The Child and His Symptoms is on the psychosomatic aspect of children's ills, a number of common pediatric problems are reviewed, with differential diagnoses of organic and emotionally caused conditions. Apley and MacKeith particularly bring out the overlapping and interweaving of physical and mental problems and discuss their simultaneous handling. Most of the complaints commonly brought to doctors