Psychiatry: Whither to?

Increasing division of specialisation in modern medicine has specifically unwrapped the issues of challenges of mental health. This article highlights the importance of primary care mental health, problems of awareness and under detection. Finally, challenges in the current status of mental health are highlighted

Socio cultural arena of alcoholism in Australia: what do we know?

After caffeine, ethanol is probably the most commonly used recreational drug worldwide. However, there is significant variation in the consumption of alcohol between individuals. Alcohol is freely available throughout most of the world, although some communities prohibit its consumption on religious grounds. The World Health Organization (WHO, 2002) reported that in established market economies, 10.3% of the disease burden as quantified by disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) was attributable to alcohol in 2000. This is comparable to the disease burden caused by tobacco (11.7% of DALYs) but significantly more than that due to unprescribed drugs (2.3% of DALYs). However, these figures are conservative because they take into account the potential benefits of alcohol and focus on the effects of alcohol on health

Skilled yet lost? Challenges of international medical graduates in psychiatry: Australian perspective

Abstract of presentation at the 67th Annual National Conference of the Indian Psychiatric Society (ANCIPS 2015), at Hyderabad, India, 8-11 January 2015

Early Australian experience in the maintenance of schizophrenia management with 3-monthly paliperidone palmitate

Objectives: Real-world experience from a 6-month product familiarization programme (PFP) for 3-monthly paliperidone palmitate in schizophrenia maintenance treatment. Methods: Prescribers completed an online questionnaire for each patient at enrolment with further questions at second dose (re-supply) stage and a second survey of their overall experience at the end. Results: Ninety-four patients were enrolled and received a first dose and 23 received a second dose within the 6-month programme; 51.1% had been hospitalised for symptom relapse in the previous 2 years. Reasons for prescribing were convenience of 3-monthly dosing for patients (94.7%) and patient choice (54.6%). Prescribers followed-up at least once-monthly (69.6% cases) and indicated in 48.9% they would consider shared GP care. All patients were satisfied with symptom control and either maintained functioning or showed improvement. Clinicians felt confident with administration and identifying suitable patients and were all \u27satisfied\u27 or \u27somewhat satisfied\u27 with efficacy and tolerability. All felt patients\u27 treatment goals were either \u27met\u27 (81.3%) or \u27partly met\u27 (18.7%) and none reported dissatisfaction with relapse prevention. Conclusions: Convenient 3-monthly dosing was preferred by clinicians and patients, and symptoms were adequately managed. This has the potential to improve adherence and lead to better outcomes as patients only need four intramuscular doses per year

Clinical psychiatry teaching for medical students: reflections of a psychiatric preceptor in a regional medical school

Abstract of a paper presented at the 65th Annual National Conference of Indian Psychiatric Society, Bangalor, 10-13 Jan, 2013. Aims and Objectives: The purpose of this study was to delineate the process of acquiring basic Psychiatric knowledge and skills during medical education and the internship Period. It was motivated by a need to effectively deliver the steadily increasing scientific knowledge about psychiatric disorders and their treatment to graduate entry medical students. We describe our reflections on being a clinical preceptor for Graduate Students of GSM (Graduate School of Medicine) during the 5 week rotations in Hospital based clinical rotations in Psychiatry

The Association of Antidepressant Medication and Body Weight Gain

Objective: To review the literature and discover which antidepressants are responsible for weight gain and then to discuss the areas with lack of adequate knowledge. Method: An electronic search was conducted through Medline, Pubmed, Cochrane library, and ScienceDirect. Forty nine empirical researches were identified and reviewed. Results: Amitriptyline, clomipramine, and mirtazapine have been associated with more weight gain induction in clinical studies, but not in animal-based studies. All TCAs have been reported to cause weight gain except protriptyline. MAOIs have been associated with weight gain. In SSRI group, citalopram and ecitalopram induce weight, yet mixed results exist for paroxetine and fluoxetine. Researches unanimously reported weight loss effect for bupropion. Some studies suggest contributing factors in the relationship of antidepressants with body weight changes including age, gender, base-line weights and treatment duration. Various results of different treatment durations have been reported in some cases but there are not continuous time-dependent studies for the influences of antidepressants on body weight changes. Conclusion: More studies are required to discover underlying mechanisms and the time-dependent effects of antidepressants on body weight changes

A systematic review of the quality of life of carers of children with cleft lip and/or plate

Caring for an infant or child requires a significant amount of time, energy and resources; this burden is further increased when the infant or child has a chronic condition or disability. Prior research has demonstrated that caregiving for a child with special needs impacts upon parents or carers mental health, well-being and quality of life. This article systematically reviews the literature pertaining to the impact of caring for a child with cleft lip and /or palate upon parental quality of life. A search of four databases was conducted with a number of key terms; the titles, abstracts and finally the whole article were read and assessed for relevance. Only articles written in English were included in the review. The results yielded four relevant articles; that displayed inconsistent results. The results of these articles are reviewed. It was evident that the construct of quality of life was narrowly operationalised in all four articles either being assessed as health-related quality of life or as the impact upon the family. Further all four studies emanated from the same country. The limitations are discussed with recommendations made for future research endeavours

The role of health literacy and social networks in arthritis patients\u27 health information-seeking behavior : a qualitative study

Background. Patients engage in health information-seeking behaviour to maintain their wellbeing and to manage chronic diseases such as arthritis. Health literacy allows patients to understand available treatments and to critically appraise information they obtain from a wide range of sources. Aims. To explore how arthritis patients\u27 health literacy affects engagement in arthritis-focused health information-seeking behaviour and the selection of sources of health information available through their informal social network. Methods. An exploratory, qualitative study consisting of one-on-one semi-structured interviews. Twenty participants with arthritis were recruited from community organizations. The interviews were designed to elicit participants\u27 understanding about their arthritis and arthritis medication and to determine how the participants\u27 health literacy informed selection of where they found information about their arthritis and pain medication. Results. Participants with low health literacy were less likely to be engaged with health information-seeking behaviour. Participants with intermediate health literacy were more likely to source arthritis-focused health information from newspapers, television, and within their informal social network. Those with high health literacy sourced information from the internet and specialist health sources and were providers of information within their informal social network. Conclusion. Health professionals need to be aware that levels of engagement in health information-seeking behaviour and sources of arthritis-focused health information may be related to their patients\u27 health literacy.<br /

DSM and cultural diversity

Abstract presented at The 14th Pacific Rim College of Psychiatrists Scientific Meeting, 28-30 October 2010, Brisbane, Australi

Iron-oxide based electrodes in aqueous supercapacitors

Climate change and the limited availability of fossil fuels have greatly affected the world economy and ecology. The demand of energy is not coping up the supply of the same. With a fast-growing market for portable electronic devices and the development of hybrid electric vehicles, there has been an ever increasing and urgent demand for environmentally friendly high-power energy resources. This has led to development of energy storage devices, mostly supercapacitors and batteries. In the recent times it is seen that li-ion batteries have been dominating energy storage device sector (Portable electronics, hybrid vehicles and grids). Li-ion still lacks when there is sudden demand in high power. The development of higher energy and power density systems highly rely upon the advancement of new materials used in these devices. Transition oxides and conducting polymers based nanofibers are excellent candidates for application as electrodes in the energy storage devices because of their unique properties such as high capacitance, chemical durability, nature friendly and high specific surface area. Electrospinning is a simple, fast and a scalable technique wherein fiber formation is done with the help of a strong electric field to stretch out a polymer solution to form nanofibers with diameters in the range of 100-800 nm. This fiber-formation technique results in formation of free-standing, binder free and non-woven fiber mat. My thesis focuses on preparation of Iron oxide based nanofibers through electrospinning method, characterizing these nanofibers via spectroscopic/microscopic techniques and developing understanding of their electrochemical mechanisms in an aqueous medium. My work focusses more on structurally supporting these oxides in the conductive carbon fiber matrix which otherwise delaminates while cycling reducing performance in energy storage devices.M.S., Chemical Engineering -- Drexel University, 201