A study of psychiatric co-morbidity among alcohol dependents

Background: The alcohol use disorders are frequently associated with other co-morbid psychiatric disorders. The aim of this study was to describe the demographic variables, drinking history and psychiatric co-morbidity in alcohol dependent subjects.Methods: In this study, 40 consecutive patients were enrolled. After a minimum 1 month of sobriety, patients who fulfilled ICD-10 criteria of alcohol dependence were interviewed for data collection using Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT), MINI-International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI) (Version-6.0) and a specially designed sociodemographic and clinical interview proforma. Subjects with substance use except tobacco were excluded from study. Main group comparison used chi-square test for categorical variables and the t-test for continuous variables.Results: Most of the patients studied were >40 years of age. Majority were employed (92%), lived in nuclear families (78%) and came from rural background (77.5%). Forty five percent of the patients initiated alcohol drinking between 16-25 years and reported peer pressure (50%) as most significant factor responsible for initiation of drinking alcohol. Mean age of developing alcohol dependence was 25.12 years (SD=4.28). Mean AUDIT score for subjects was 27.7 (SD=4.73). Lifetime psychiatric co-morbid disorders were detected in 45%. Psychiatric disorders most frequently associated with alcohol dependence were major depressive disorder (10%), bipolar affective disorder (7.5%), dysthymia (5%), anxiety disorders (7.5%) and antisocial personality disorder (5%).Conclusion: The study indicates that psychiatric disorders are prevalent in alcohol dependents and mood disorders are the most prevalent ones. It was also observed that co-morbid psychiatric disorders are associated with more severe alcohol problems

Undergraduate nursing students’ attitude towards mental illness: a cross sectional study

Background: People suffering from mental illness commonly face stigma, bias, and discrimination by general public. Health care professionals are not immune to social biases and share the public's attitude meted out to people with mental illness. Nursing students are future health manpower. There are only few studies conducted on medical students’ attitude towards people with mental illnesses in India. We have planned this study to examine the undergraduate nursing students’ attitude towards people suffering from mental illnesses.Methods: It was a cross-sectional study. A total of 220 undergraduate nursing students were selected randomly with their consent to complete the Attitude Scale for Mental Illness (ASMI).Results: The nursing students were found to have a significant positive attitude towards mental illness in five of the six attitudes factors: Restrictiveness (8.42), benevolence (28.6) and stigmatization (7.3), separatism (15.6) and stereotype (9.4) However, these students had negative attitude in pessimistic predictions (12.5) domain as they rated this domain slightly on the higher side.Conclusions: Academic education in this field must be conceptualized and planned in order to favor the change of the attitudes that includes greater utilization of those teaching strategies that challenge beliefs and assumptions and promote a commitment to provide holistic care to people with mental illness

Assessment of burn-out among staff nurses working in a tertiary care health centre in North India

Background: This descriptive, cross sectional study identified the occurrence of burnout and some associated factors among nurses working in various departments at Indira Gandhi Medical College, Shimla, Himachal Pradesh, India which is a tertiary care health centre in the state.Methods: A total of 257 nurses screened in the hospital out of which 81 completed the study. Eighty-one nurses answered a self-administered questionnaire (sociodemographic aspects, working conditions, and Maslach Burnout Inventory). Mean scores were compared using ANOVA test. Student T-test was applied to compare mean scores between the groups.Results: All the participants were females (100%), with up to five years’ experience. High levels of emotional stress (45.7%) and depersonalization (24.7%) were identified, as well as low professional fulfilment (6.2%), and 8.6% presented burnout. The following factors were associated: high levels of emotional stress and always perform tasks very quickly (p=0.04) and receiving a salary incompatible to the effort employed (p=0.03); high levels of depersonalization and with up to five years’ experience (p=0.02) and often perform tasks very quickly (p=0.008). For 19.0%, at least two of the three dimensions pointed to high propensity to the syndrome.Conclusions: Searching for personal solutions for work problems must draw our attention, since it discourages health and work performance. Professionals may feel more fulfilled and satisfied by adjusting their work expectations. However, on a long-term basis, persisting in stressful work conditions enhances emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and feelings of low fulfilment at work

Prevalence of depression and its associated factors among medical students: a study using beck depression inventory

Background: Medical education carries with it a great burden of stress that can result in depression. This study was conducted to assess the prevalence of depression in medical students and various factors contributing to depression in the institute.Methods: A stratified random sample of 280 students was evaluated using Beck Depression Inventory by investigators. Associations between depression and year of study, addiction like alcohol use, family problems, family history of depression and staying away from home were analysed by univariate analysis.Results: The overall prevalence of depression was found to be 30.0%. Among those with depression, a majority (93%) had mild and moderate degree of depression. The study depicted that 41.6% (35) of the depressed were females and 58.3% (49) were males. As per the cut-off scores, 196 students (69.9%) scored as normal (0-9), 60 (21.4%) as mild (10-18), 18 (6.4%) as moderate (19-29), 4 (1.4%) as severe (30-40) and 2 (0.7%) as very severe (>40) depression. The prevalence of depression was comparatively less among 1st and 2nd year medical students (17.1%) and the difference between the grade of depression and year of study was found to be not significant (χ2=148, P=0.13). The prevalence was found more among those with family problems and family history of depression.Conclusions: In our study, depression was quite prevalent among medical students of the region. Our findings stressed the importance of broad screening and psychiatric counselling of this vulnerable population more meticulously

A systematic review of emerging information technologies for sustainable data-centric health-care

© 2021 Elsevier B.V. Background: Of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the third presents the opportunity for a predictive universal digital healthcare ecosystem, capable of informing early warning, assisting in risk reduction and guiding management of national and global health risks. However, in reality, the existing technology infrastructure of digital healthcare systems is insufficient, failing to satisfy current and future data needs. Objective: This paper systematically reviews emerging information technologies for data modelling and analytics that have potential to achieve Data-Centric Health-Care (DCHC) for the envisioned objective of sustainable healthcare. The goal of this review is to: 1) identify emerging information technologies with potential for data modelling and analytics, and 2) explore recent research of these technologies in DCHC. Findings: A total of 1619 relevant papers have been identified and analysed in this review. Of these, 69 were probed deeply. Our analysis found that the extant research focused on elder care, rehabilitation, chronic diseases, and healthcare service delivery. Use-cases of the emerging information technologies included providing assistance, monitoring, self-care and self-management, diagnosis, risk prediction, well-being awareness, personalized healthcare, and qualitative and/or quantitative service enhancement. Limitations identified in the studies included vendor hardware specificity, issues with user interface and usability, inadequate features, interoperability, scalability, and compatibility, unjustifiable costs and insufficient evaluation in terms of validation. Conclusion: Achievement of a predictive universal digital healthcare ecosystem in the current context is a challenge. State-of-the-art technologies demand user centric design, data privacy and protection measures, transparency, interoperability, scalability, and compatibility to achieve the SDG objective of sustainable healthcare by 2030

Description of clinical factors for suicide attempts in a tertiary care hospital of northern part of India

Background: Suicide is the result of an act deliberately initiated and performed by a person in the full knowledge or expectation of its fatal outcome. Suicide attempts are a significant public health problem. The present study aimed to explore the variousclinical characteristics of suicideattempters in a tertiary care hospital of Shimla, Himachal Pradesh, a northern state of India.Methods: We conducted a descriptive study among patients with attempted suicide to the department of Psychiatry, Indira Gandhi Medical College (IGMC) Shimla. A structured, self-designed interview schedule and short-form revised Eyseneck personality questionnaire-Hindi (EPQRS-H) was used for data collection. Data was analyzed using Epi info software v 7.2.0.Results: There were total 77 participants in the study out of which 44 (57.1%) were females. Mean age (Standard deviation) of participants was 30.8 years (9.9 years). Relationship problems were the most common (48.1%) recent life event followed by health events (28.6%). Depression was found to be the most common diagnosis (62.3%). Pesticide consumption was the method of attempting suicide in 72.7% of females compared to 66.7% of males.Conclusions: Recent major life events especially relationship problems may lead to majority of suicide attempts. There is urgent need to focus on patients suffering from depression by health personnel as well as family members. The sale of the pesticides should be regulated to keep in check the misuse of the same

The aetiological profile of new onset palpitations in natives of Western Himalayas: a cross sectional observational study

Background: Palpitation is a common presenting complaint in out patient department. Etiological profile of such patients has not been studied in the recent past. The aim of the study was to study the aetiological profile of patients with new onset palpitations in North Indian tertiary health care centre.Methods: 130 consecutive patients of new onset palpitations were enrolled in the study and the aetiological profile of palpitation was evaluated using detailed history, examination and investigations.Results: The study group had 53% female and 47% male with a ratio of 1.13:1. Majority of the patients in the age group of 18-29 years. The mean age was 32.04+15.14 years. Most common symptom associated was shortness of breath seen in 17% patients. Of the 130 patients 43.8% of patients had cardiac aetiology, 35.38% psychiatric and 20% had miscellaneous aetiology. Among cardiac aetiology, arrhythmias were most common. PSVT was encountered in 15.4% and AF in 13.1%of the total patients. Psychiatry causes were observed in 35% of patients. In psychiatric causes 71.7% patients had panic attack whereas 28.2% patients had generalised anxiety disorder (GAD). In third group of miscellaneous causes which was 20% of total 6.9% had anaemia, 10% hyperthyroidism and 3.8% were on beta agonists.Conclusions: Palpitation is a presenting symptom of various diseases. The cause can be easily ascertained in most of the patients by a good history and examination; serious cardiac diseases require special investigation. Palpitation as a symptom should not be overlooked the underlying cause must be identified; this can be a helpful clue to improve patient outcome

Efeito da densidade de população inicial do nematódeo Meloidogyne javanica sobre o desenvolvimento e rendimento da soja

Relationship between initial population densities (Pi) of Meloidogyne javanica (Treub 1885) (Chitwood 1949) and the growth and grain yield of soybean cv. UFV-1 and final population densities was investigated under greenhouse conditions. Two-day old plants grown in 2 kg of soil (1:1 mixture of Dark-Red Latosol and river sand) were inoculated with 0, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32 and 64 larvae per g of soil. A highly significant correlation (P <0.05%) between P. and means of plant height, fresh weight of aerial part, root, and leaf area of the plant after 35, 70 and 95 days of inoculations observed. With the increase in P levels from zero to 2, 4, 8 and 16 larvae per g of soil, the percent reduction in grain yield was 43.5, 52.1, 82.4 and 98 respectively. There was significant linear relationship between Pi and Pf up to 16 larvae per g of soil. The final population (Pf) was high more than five larvae per plant at the treatment with four-larvae per g of soil initial population, and the lowest (zero) at 32 and 64 larvae per g of soil.A relação entre a densidade populacional inicial (P1) do nematódeo Meloidogyne javanica (Treub 1885) (Chitwood 1949) e o crescimento vegetativo, a produção de grão da soja cv. UFV-1 e a densidade populacional final (Pf). foi investigada sob condições de casa-de-vegetação. Plantas de dois dias, nascidas em vasos de 2 kg de solo (1:1 volume de uma mistura do Latossolo Vermelho-Escuro e areia de rio) foram inoculadas com 0, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32 e 64 larvas por g de solo. Verificou-se uma correlação significativa (P<0,05) entre Pi as médias para altura, peso da parte aérea, raiz e área foliar da planta com 35, 70 e 95 dias após inoculações. Com o aumento do nível do P1 de zero para 2, 4, 8 e 16 larvas por g de solo, houve 43,5; 52,1; 82,4 e 98 por cento de redução de grãos. Houve uma relação linear significativa entre Pi e Pf até 16 larvas por g de solo. A população final (Pf) foi alta (mais de 5 larvas por planta) no tratamento com Pi de 4 larvas por g de solo e reduzida a 0 nos tratamentos em Pi de 32 e 64 larvas por g de solo

Combined ion and atom trap for low temperature ion-atom physics

We report an experimental apparatus and technique which simultaneously traps ions and cold atoms with spatial overlap. Such an apparatus is motivated by the study of ion-atom processes at temperatures ranging from hot to ultra-cold. This area is a largely unexplored domain of physics with cold trapped atoms. In this article we discuss the general design considerations for combining these two traps and present our experimental setup. The ion trap and atom traps are characterized independently of each other. The simultaneous operation of both is then described and experimental signatures of the effect of the ions and cold-atoms on each other are presented. In conclusion the use of such an instrument for several problems in physics and chemistry is briefly discussed.Comment: 24 pages, 13 figures. Figures Fixe