To determine whether the College guidelines in liaison psychiatry are being implemented, a survey of training opportunities at senior house officer (SHO) level was undertaken. A detailed postal survey was conducted in January 2000. Information was collected about the number and nature of SHO liaison psychiatry posts from a wide range of sources.

Nationally, 45.5 SHO posts in liaison psychiatry were identified. These were unevenly distributed, with a high number in London. Only five posts were available to general practitioner trainees. Nine regions anticipated an increase in training opportunities. Regional liaison representatives had incomplete knowledge of the availability of liaison training opportunities in their region.

The College guidelines to incorporate liaison experience into all training schemes have not been implemented. In four regions no training opportunities were identified whatsoever. A national database is needed to monitor training opportunities and inform further development of training posts.

The British Journal of Psychiatry (BJP), Psychiatric Bulletin and Advances in Psychiatric Treatment have been available at www.rcpsych.org since May 2000 (Fig. 1). During the initial free trial period all users of the internet had access to the full content of these journals on-line. This period ended on 31 January 2001. Access to full text is now limited to subscribers only; but access to electronic tables of contents (eTOCs), abstracts and the ability to search full text will continue to be available. Individuals or institutions who subscribe to BJP in print or are Members of the College are now able to activate an on-line subscription and select a username and password by entering a subscriber number. The eTOC service allows anyone who registers his or her e-mail address to be notified via e-mail when new content goes on-line. Users may choose to receive any or all of the following: notification that a new issue of BJP is on-line; a complete eTOC for new issues; and special announcements from the College.

To report the management of three cases of clozapine-induced enuresis, by description of these cases and literature review.

Heavy sedation, generalised epilepsy and diabetes mellitus induced by clozapine are some of the mechanisms that underlie the emergence of this side-effect.

These cases illustrate several different pathophysiological mechanisms necessitating further diagnostic investigations before adequate treatment can be started. Clozapine-induced enuresis is probably under-reported owing to the embarrassing nature of this side-effect.

To find out whether trainees have access to computers and computer software; to estimate the demand for more access and training; and to see whether requests for more computer access over a 2-year period led to change. A questionnaire was sent to trainees in November 1997, and again 2 years later.

Only half of the senior house officers and three-quarters of specialist registrars said they had access to computers. For those with access, this tended to be for word processing and Medline. Only one-quarter had access to the internet. There was a strong demand for wider access and for more training. There was little change in the provision of computers and software over the 2-year period.

To take advantage of developments in technology, psychiatrists need to have access to computers. This survey suggests that trainees are not being adequately prepared for the future.

To describe how the Learning Styles Inventory was used to assess the preferred learning styles of a group of senior and specialist registrars from different specialities attending a management course.

Of the 272 doctors studied, the learning styles of psychiatrists (n=42) emerged as significantly different to the group as a whole, favouring reflective observation and concrete experience rather than active experimentation or abstract conceptualisation.

Knowledge of learning styles can help improve interactions with other specialities that adopt different learning strategies, and assist with the individual psychiatrist's lifelong learning. To engage the interest of medical students, psychiatrists may need to consider different teaching approaches in line with the prevalent learning style.

In response to frequent cancellations, we recently changed the format of our journal club. We invited a statistician to attend and each meeting focused specifically on critical appraisal and statistical analysis. Active learning principles were used where every participant critically appraised an aspect of the paper presented at each meeting. The aim of this paper was to evaluate the impact of the new format on attendance and satisfaction levels. Attendance and satisfaction levels were measured in the 3 months before and the 3 months after the new format was introduced.

Average attendance increased from 10 to 15, with two psychologists and two trainees who did not work in the hospital starting to attend regularly. Satisfaction levels also increased significantly with respect to academic interest, enjoyment, usefulness and overall satisfaction.

Combining statistical expertise with principles of active learning has led to increased satisfaction levels among participants in our journal club.

Home treatment offers an alternative to in-patient care, but little has been written about the practicalities of running such a service. Using routine information sources, details of referral and outcome are presented for patients assessed by a home treatment service over 6 months.

Forty-eight per cent of referrals were not accepted, mainly because of lack of cooperation, risk to self or others or the illness not being acute enough. Referrals from junior doctors and accident & emergency were least likely to be accepted. Seventy-two per cent of patients accepted suffered from schizophrenia, bipolar affective disorder or depression with psychosis, similar to the diagnoses for in-patients. Twenty per cent of patients accepted had to be transferred to in-patient care later.

Staffing levels need to take account of time spent assessing patients. Junior doctors need training in how to use home treatment services appropriately and a wider range of options are needed to manage patients in crisis out of hours. It is possible to target patients with severe mental illness in a home treatment setting, but a significant number will need transfer to inpatient care.