Depression in primary care: difficulties and paradoxes

The presentation of depression in primary care is in many ways different from that seen in psychiatric settings. The process of detection and treatment is also different. This is particularly so in developing countries like Pakistan, which has high prevalence rates of depression but poorly organized primary health care services and primary care physicians (PCPs) who have little psychiatric training, either at undergraduate or postgraduate levels. There is a need to review difficulties faced by primary care physicians in detection and management of depression. It is hoped this would lead to better and more effective management of depression at primary health care level

Economic burden of mental illnesses in Pakistan.

BACKGROUND: The economic consequences of mental illnesses are much more than health consequences. In Low and Middle Income Countries (LMIC) the economic impact of mental illnesses is rarely analyzed. This paper attempts to fill the gap in research on economics of mental health in LMIC. We provide economic burden of mental illness in Pakistan that can serve as an argument for reorienting health policy, resource allocation and priority settings. AIM: To estimate economic burden of mental illnesses in Pakistan. METHODS: The study used prevalence based cost of illnesses approach using bottom-up costing methodology. We used Aga Khan University Hospital, Psychiatry department data set (N = 1882) on admission and ambulatory care for the year 2005-06. Healthcare cost data was obtained from finance department of the hospital. Productivity losses, caregiver and travel cost were estimated using socio-economicfeatures of patients in the data set and data of national household survey. We used stratified random sampling and methods of ordinary least square multiple linear regressions to estimate cost on medicines for ambulatory care. All estimates of cost are based on 1000 bootstrap samples by ICD-10 disease classification. Prevalence data on mental illnesses from Pakistan and regional countries was used to estimate economic burden. RESULTS: The economic burden of mental illnesses in Pakistan was Pakistan Rupees (PKR) 250,483 million (USD 4264.27 million) in 2006. Medical care costs and productivity losses contributed 37% and 58.97% of the economic burden respectively. Tertiary care admissions costs were 70% of total medical care costs. The average length of stay (LOS) for admissions care was around 8 days. Daily average medical care cost of admitted patients was PKR 3273 (USD 55.72). For ambulatory care, on average a patient visited the clinic twice a year. The estimated average yearly cost for all mental illnesses was PKR 81,922 (USD 1394.65) and PKR 19,592 (USD 333.54) for admissions and ambulatory care respectively. In the sensitivity analysis productivity losses showed high variability (from USD 1022.17 million to USD 4007.01 million). Assuming a gate keeping role of primary healthcare (PHC) demonstrated a saving of USD 1577.19 million in total economic burden. IMPLICATIONS FOR HEALTH POLICY: This study set out to generate evidence using a low cost innovative approach relevant to many LMICs. In Pakistan, like many LMICs, patients access tertiary care directly, even for illness that can be efficiently managed at PHC level. In economic terms the non-medical consequences of mental illnesses are far greater than medical consequences. Based on these finding we recommend, firstly, that mental illnesses should be prioritized equally as other illnesses in health policy and secondly there needs to be integration of mental health in primary health care in Pakistan

Perceived coercion and need for hospital admission among psychiatric in-patients: figures from a Pakistani tertiary care hospital

In Pakistan, an increasing proportion of psychiatric patients present to community health services as crisis admissions, with their relatives as the main decision makers. Patients are bound to perceive this process as coercive. Farnham & James (2000) report that elements of coercion are found even in voluntary hospital admission, in the form of verbal persuasion, physical force and threats of commitment. Few patients consider hospitalisation justified and most view the process of admission negatively (Swartz et al, 2003; Katsakou & Priebe, 2006; Priebe et al, 2009)

COMPARATIVE CHARACTERIZATION OF ANTIOXIDANT PROFILE OF VITAMIN-E AND RED DATES IN PLACEBO AND TESTED GROUPS OF HYPERLIPIDEMIC PATIENTS

Objective: Antioxidants are nutrients that help minimize free-radical damage to the body. Free radicals are highly reactive compounds that are created in the body during normal metabolic functions or introduced from the environment, such as by exposure to pollution and other toxins. Inherently unstable, free radicals contain "extra" energy which they try to reduce by reacting with certain chemicals in the body, which interferes with the cells' ability to function normally. Current study compared antioxidant characteristics of vitamin-E and red Dates. It was placebo-controlled conducted study conducted at general hospital Methods: Lahore Pakistan from January 2018 to March 2018. LDL-cholesterol was calculated as total cholesterol- HDL-cholesterol-VLDL-cholesterol; VLDL-cholesterol was measured directly after ultracentrifugation. After one month therapy their post treatment lipid profile was determined and analyzed statistically by using SPSS version 2.2.01 2013. Paired ‘t’ test was applied for mean values with SD of the parameters before and after treatment. Results: Results showed highly significant change in LDL-cholesterol of group-II patients but HDL-cholesterol was increased 6.6 mg/dl, still it was significant change with p-value of <0.01. In group-III LDL-cholesterol was decreased 10.9 mg/dl which is significant change with p-value <0.01. HDL-cholesterol in this group was increased 4.2 mg/dl which is non significant with p-value of >0.05. Conclusion: Study concluded that red dates have antioxidant potential by lowering LDL-cholesterol in human plasma. But this effect is not comparable with hypolipidemic effects of Vitamin E as it also increases good cholesterol i.e. HDL-cholesterol.                      Peer Review History: Received 14 June 2019;   Revised 5 July; Accepted 9 July, Available online 15 July 2019 Academic Editor: Rola Jadallah, Arab American University, Palestine, [email protected] UJPR follows the most transparent and toughest ‘Advanced OPEN peer review’ system. The identity of the authors and, reviewers will be known to each other. This transparent process will help to eradicate any possible malicious/purposeful interference by any person (publishing staff, reviewer, editor, author, etc) during peer review. As a result of this unique system, all reviewers will get their due recognition and respect, once their names are published in the papers. We expect that, by publishing peer review reports with published papers, will be helpful to many authors for drafting their article according to the specifications. Auhors will remove any error of their article and they will improve their article(s) according to the previous reports displayed with published article(s). The main of it is ‘to improve the quality of a candidate manuscript’. Our reviewers check the ‘strength and weakness of a manuscript honestly’. There will increase in the perfection, and transparency. Received file:                Reviewer's Comments: Average Peer review marks at initial stage: 5.5/10 Average Peer review marks at publication stage: 7.5/10 Reviewer(s) detail: Ahmad Najib, Universitas Muslim Indonesia, Makassar, Indonesia, [email protected] Dr. Marwa A. A. Fayed, University of Sadat City, Egypt, [email protected]  Similar Articles: PHYTOCHEMICAL SCREENING AND IN-VITRO ANTIOXIDANT AND ANTI-INFLAMMATORY POTENTIAL EVALUATIONS OF METHANOLIC EXTRACTS OF COCOS NUCIFERA (L.) LEAVES ANTIHYPERGLYCEMIC AND ANTI-OXIDANT POTENTIAL OF ETHANOL EXTRACT OF VITEX THYRSIFLORA LEAVES ON DIABETIC RATS PHYTOCHEMICAL SCREENING AND IN VITRO ANTIOXIDANT AND ANTI-DIABETIC POTENTIALS OF PERSEA AMERICANA MILL. (LAURACEAE) FRUIT EXTRACT ANTI-HYPERGLYCEMIC AND ANTI-OXIDANT ACTIVITIES OF METHANOL EXTRACT OF GONGRONEMA LATIFOLIUM ANTI-INFLAMMATORY AND ANTI-OXIDANT ACTIVITIES OF METHANOL EXTRACT OF BAPHIA NITIDA ANTIMICROBIAL AND ANTIOXIDANT ACTIVITY OF PSIDIUM GUAJAVA. (GUAVA) MEDICINAL PLANT LEAVES USED IN FOLK MEDICINE FOR TREATMENT OF WOUNDS AND BURNS IN HUFASH DISTRICT AL MAHWEET GOVERNORATE–YEME

Awareness and perceptions of electroconvulsive therapy among psychiatric patients: a cross-sectional survey from teaching hospitals in Karachi, Pakistan

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is shown to be effective in many psychiatric illnesses, but its distorted projection by the Pakistani media and its unregulated use by many physicians across the country have adversely affected its acceptability. Given this situation we aimed to assess the awareness and perceptions regarding ECT as a treatment modality among the psychiatric patients.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>This was a questionnaire based cross-sectional study carried out at 2 tertiary care hospitals in Karachi, Pakistan.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We interviewed 190 patients of which 140 were aware of ECT. The study showed that the level of education had a significant impact on the awareness of ECT (p = 0.009). The most common source of awareness was electronic and print media (38%), followed by relatives (24%) and doctors (23%). Physical injuries (42%) and neurological (12%) and cognitive disturbances (11%) were the commonly feared side effects. The most popular belief about ECT was that it was a treatment of last resort (56%). Thirty-nine percent thought that ECT could lead to severe mental and physical illness and 37% considered it inhumane. Patients' willingness to receive ECT was dependant on whether or not they were convinced of its safety (p = 0.001) and efficacy (p = 0.0001).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>We identified a serious lack of dissemination of information regarding ECT by the psychiatrists and the mental health care providers. This may be the result of an inadequate postgraduate training in Pakistan or just a lack of concern about the mentally ill patients. The media seemed to be the major source of information for our patients. We also saw the prevalence of a variety of myths regarding ECT in our society, which we feel may be responsible for the patients' adverse attitudes. Given the widespread applicability of ECT there is a dire need to dispel these misconceptions and improve its acceptability.</p

Depression and its association with functional status and physical activity in the elderly in Karachi, Pakistan

Objective: The aim of the study was to determine the functional status and level of physical activity and their association with depression in the elderly population (age 60 and above) in Karachi, Pakistan.Methods: This was a cross-sectional study. Subjects were recruited through multi-stage cluster sampling technique. Questionnaire-based interviews were conducted from July to September 2008. Functional status and physical activity were assessed using activities of daily living (ADL) and physical activity questionnaires, respectively. Depression was evaluated using the 15-item geriatric depression scale (GDS).Results: Both mean ADL score (9.9±0.2 vs. 9.6±0.2) as well as time spent in physical activity/week (377.3±26.9min vs. 251.7±15.4min) was higher in men than women, respectively. Subjects spending more than 310min (\u3e5.2h) per week in physical activity were 60% less likely to be depressed compared to those who spent less than 120min (\u3c2h) per week (Adjusted OR=0.4, 95% CI=0.2-0.7). A one unit increase in ADL score showed a 10% decrease in depression after adjusting for other variables (Adjusted OR=0.9, 95% CI=0.8-0.9).CONCLUSIONS: We found a strong association between depression and time spent in physical activities as well as activities of daily living. Our results indicate the potentially important positive role of higher functional status and physical activity in prevention of depression in the elderly in Karachi