A Descriptive Study on Psychiatric Morbidity among Nurses Working in Selected Hospitals of Udupi and Mangalore Districts Karnataka, India

Nursing is recognized as a stressful occupation and has indicated a probable high prevalence of distress. It is a helping profession requiring a high degree of commitment and involvement. If stress is intense, continuous and repeated, it becomes a negative phenomenon or "distress," which can lead to physical illness and psychological disorders. The frequency of common psychosomatic symptoms including sleeping problems, tension headache, chronic fatigue, palpitation etc. may be an indicator of nurses' work-related stress level. Objectives of the study were to determine psychiatric morbidity among nurses and to find its association with selected variables. The study population consisted of 1040 registered nurses working in selected medical college hospitals and government hospitals of Udupi and Mangalore districts. Descriptive survey design was used to conduct the study. Subjects were selected by using purposive sampling. Data were gathered by administering background proforma and General Health questionnaire. Severe distress was experienced by 0.9% of nurses and 5.6% had some evidence of distress. Subjects who did not have any distress were 93.5%. No significant association between psychiatric morbidity in nurses and demographic variables was observed. With regard to work variables significant association is observed between psychiatric morbidity and total years of experience (z=10.67, p=0.03) and experience in current area of work (z=9.43, p=0.02)

Clozapine-induced supraventricular tachycardia and its treatment with Verapamil

Clozapine is known to be an effective antipsychotic for schizophrenia. Cardiovascular complications associated with initiation of clozapine include tachycardia, postural hypotension, and myocarditis. Factors associated with development of cardiovascular adverse events are not clearly known, and dose titration has been described to be one among the associated risk factors. We report a case of a 45-year-old man with treatment resistant schizophrenia who developed supraventricular tachycardia during initiation of clozapine and discuss the role of verapamil in its successful management