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general health and welfare factor in student life.
With the large staffs of these colleges one relies
to some extent on the chain reaction of information
about the student health service
Again in 1968 as in the previous year about
two thirds of the medical consultations were
concerned with psycho social problems. It seems
that many adolescents need a person to advise
them who is outside the home and occupation
influence yet is aware of both these factors. In
some instances where students are found to have
family or academic problems giving rise to
psycho-somatic symptoms help has been gained
by the group therapy approach with the student
taking an active part
The question of the degree of practical use
fulness of intelligence and aptitude tests for
students is controversial It is thought however
that more use could be made of the services of
an educational psychologist where there is
doubt about a student s academic ability to cope
with a given course. The situation should not
often arise where a student is found to be in
acute anxiety state having attempted an academic
course requiring an intelligence level well above
his natural ability.
If one considers the spectrum of student work
activity it is apparent that occuring at one end
is the saturation syndrome and at the other a
condition which has been called by Malleson
(1963) the decompression syndrome The former
is most frequently encountered in overseas
students who are often under family, social and
economic pressures to be successful in examinations
These students present in an actue anxiety
state usually a short time before an important
examination They give a history of being unable
to memorise recent work and they attempt to
compensate by still longer periods of study. The
observant tutor will refer these students for
counselling well before the time when the anxiety
state causes such symptoms and signs as loss
of weight nausea headache tremor and vague
body pains to be fully established.
The decompression syndrome is seen less
commonly at the polytechnic colleges some six
cases were encounted during the year. All
originated from schools where there appeared to
be a rigid time-table and close supervision of
study. All found great difficulty in planning
their student activities in the less formal atmosphere
of a college These students need the help
of the tutors and welfare officers if they are not
to become psycho-social casualties
76
Absence of response of some tongue conditions in
children to administration of vitamins
At the request of the Department of Health and
Social Security co operation was arranged in an
investigation into tongue conditions and the
following paper by John Yudkin Queen Elizabeth
College London W 8. D H Norman and Megan
E Wilkinson Dental and Health Department
Hounslow Middx. and W T C Berry Department
of Health and Social Security will be presented
to the Nutrition Society
Dr Geoffrey Taylor (1966) reported that tongue
conditions due to malnutrition were prevalent at
all ages and demonstrated to some of us these
conditions in secondary schoolchildren of both
sexes in Hounslow We tested whether these
appearances could be altered by the administration
of vitamins of the B complex and ascorbic acid
which Taylor believes are those most likely to be
implicated
We examined 150 boys and girls aged 11-14
in secondary schools and selected 53 as showing
the signs described by Taylor. We paid particular
attention to (a) numerous red large fungiform
papillae often most obvious near the tip of the
tongue (b) fissuring other than a shallow irregular
longitudinal fissure which we took as normal (c)
filliform papillae which were either uniformly
shorter or more swollen than those we arbitrarily
took as being normal Only one child showed
obvious abnormalitity of the filiform papillae
constituting a geographical tongue
Before the vitamins were given two of us
(B and Y) made two examinations of the children s
tongues at an interval of two months The tongues
were examined visually and coloured photographs
taken at the same time No significant change was
observed between the first and second examinations.
The double blind study began by the allocation
of the children into two groups by choosing
alternate names alphabetically One group was
given placebo tablets the other was given tablets
containing the vitamins thiamine 2.5 mg
riboflavin 5 mg pyridoxine 2.5 mg nicotinamide
15 mg and ascorbic acid 100 mg
The tablets were given on each school day
five days a week during two school terms under
the direct supervision of four teachers from the
four schools They were not given during the
Easter holidays so that out of a period of 166
days tablets were given on 103 days. The
tongues were again examined and photographed
after 49 days and at the end of the trial At