In a 10-year-old girl admitted to hospital for polyuria and polydipsia, the central nervous system origin of the symptoms was demonstrated by low antidiuretic hormone levels (inferior to 1 pg/ml) and reduction of diuresis after administration of 1-deamino-8D-arginine-vasopressin (DDAVP). A study of the girl's family history showed that the disease was hereditary and autosomal dominant. Intranasal instillations of DDAVP twice daily constitute the best known treatment of the condition.

A systematic search for Campylobacter jejuni in stool cultures from children with acute diarrhoea showed within two months that the organism was present in 3 out of 17 children. Apart from diarrhoea, the symptoms were different in each case: one child had febrile dysentery, another exhibited symptoms resembling appendicitis and the third one had chronic diarrhoea with denutrition. The condition regressed spontaneously in two cases and after erythromycin treatment in one. Phase-contrast microscope examination of fresh stools may rapidly point to the diagnosis. Routine search for Campylobacter jejuni should yield information on the incidence and epidemiology of these infections in France.

Nomifensine and nortriptyline were compared in a collaborative trial by psychiatrists in private practice. The trial impiled:--selection of ambulatory depressed patients--randomization in parallel groups (respectively 31 and 34 subjects)--administration in double-blind condition of 4 capsuels daily of either compound during 4 weeks--quotation of depressvie syndrom with Hamilton depression scale before treatment after 2 and 4 weeks. The analysis of results shows clear improvment of depression scores, equivalent in both groups (non significant difference and posterior rejection of an alternative hypothesis). Practical problems encountered in controlled trials in psychiatrist's outpatients are discussed.