Prevalence of Behavioral and Emotional Disorders among the Orphans and Factors Associated with these Disorders

Background: Orphans are the special group of children who are generally deprived and prone to develop psychiatric disorders even reared in well run institution. Objectives: To find out the prevalence of the behavioral and emotional disorder among the children living in orphanage in Dhaka city, and to assess the possible factors associated with the presence of disorders among this study population. Methods: It was a cross sectional descriptive study conducted in selected orphanages. A Total 342 cases were included. One stage structured assessment of psychopathology was carried out by using a valid Bangla version of DAWBA (The Development and Well-Being Assessment). Data analysis was done by SPSS for windows 16.0 version. Results: The results indicate that overall prevalence of behavioral and emotional disorders were 40.35%, in which Behavioral disorder was 26.9%, Emotional disorder was 10.2% and both Behavioral and Emotional disorder were 3.2%. Higher length of stay and low level of education of foster mother were significantly associated with psychiatric morbidity of the respondents. Conclusions: It can be concluded that behavioral and emotional disorders are highly prevalent among orphan children and adolescents with residential care that needs to be addressed. Moreover, measure for early identification and intervention will improve the quality of life of the orphan population.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/bsmmuj.v5i1.10997 BSMMU J 2012; 5(1):29-3

Reaction Time and Visual Memory in Connection with Alcohol Use in Schizophrenia and Schizoaffective Disorder

The purpose of this study was to explore the association between cognition and hazardous drinking and alcohol use disorder in schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder. Cognition is more or less compromised in schizophrenia, and schizoaffective disorder and alcohol use might aggravate this phenomenon. The study population included 3362 individuals from Finland with diagnoses of schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder. Hazardous drinking was screened with the AUDIT-C (Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test for Consumption) screening tool. Alcohol use disorder (AUD) diagnoses were obtained from national registrar data. Participants performed two computerized tasks from the Cambridge Automated Neuropsychological Test Battery (CANTAB) on a tablet computer: The Five-Choice Serial Reaction Time Task (5-CSRTT) or the reaction time (RT) test and the Paired Associative Learning (PAL) test. The association between alcohol use and the RT and PAL tests was analyzed with log-linear regression and logistic regression, respectively. After adjustment for age, education, housing status, and the age at which the respondents had their first psychotic episodes, hazardous drinking was associated with a lower median RT in females and less variable RT in males, while AUD was associated with a poorer PAL test performance in terms of the total errors adjusted scores (TEASs) in females. Our findings of positive associations between alcohol and cognition in schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder are unique.Peer reviewe

Online school for children and its impact on mental health of students, parents and teachers in this pandemic situation

Abstract Nowadays we are taking care of uncertainty and stress due to Current situation of the pandemic. Our confusion, queries and uncleanness about COVID 19 sometimes makes us unstable, insecure, dubiousness, etc. Bangladesh Government has taken necessary steps to control this situation and close all the schools till further notice. This article is embracing current educational systems in Bangladesh, its effect on mental health, challenges and overcoming solutions. Government and Private schools have already started their online classes. Online schools definitely help students to continue their education at home, keep students busy in these pandemic circumstances, helps them to share their feelings with students and teachers. An emotional bonding has been created between teachers and students and this new learning has simply given education a new lease of life. On the other hand teachers, with new ideas, make the classroom much more enjoyable for the students. However it lessens a gap in learning process but still faces lots of challenges. Most often it is difficult for teachers to touch every student in the class, in rural areas sometimes it is hard to get internet connection, children under 7 years old does not want to seat in front of a computer for more than one hour, children under 10 years need help from parents to operate computer or mobile, working parents feel problem to adjust online class schedule with their own, zoom, google class room is new for many students and parents which create trouble to attend class at proper time, and a portion of students and parents do not have smart mobile phone and computer. Few teachers are trained about this online teaching, Lack of training of teachers and less innovative ideas often make lessons less effective. It is painful for parents to pay fees regularly who lose their job due to COVID 19. On the other side of the coin is that a number of teachers are not getting full salary which often makes teaching less useful. Prolonged lockdown and significant changes to our daily lives may cause Depression, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Panic Disorder, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, etc. Students, teachers, and parents any one can suffer from Mental Disorder. They are also prone to develop behavioral problems such as irritability, restlessness, palpitation, sleeping and eating problem, sudden violent and aggressive behavior, fear of dying, pain on multiple sites of the body, etc. Occasionally student’s complaint of somatic problem such as headache, body ache, breathlessness, tiredness, etc. It happens due to extended lockdown, detachment from friends and non-availability of the market and playground. We always give attention to physical problem but mental health issues are also important for a productive functional life. Teachers should put some innovative ideas to make the online teaching more interesting such as regular meeting with parents, adding some audiovisual aid such as films, poster, video, allow students to play some useful games during class and take regular feedback from the students. Parents also can play an important role during this critical situation. They can also help their children to adjust with this situation. If students make themselves busy with some household works, maintain connection with friends by mobile phone and social media they can easily tackle this situation. We need to encourage and give attention to each other to overcome this situation. A great team work is highly encouraged to overcome our all challenges including technological issue. By this way we will be able to establish not only a comfort environment for both teachers and students but also can develop some active learners

Visual memory and alcohol use in a middle-aged birth cohort

Acknowledgements: Staff and participants of the NFBC1966 study.Funder: University of Oulu (including Oulu University Hospital)AbstractLight and moderate alcohol use has been reported to be associated with both impaired and enhanced cognition. The purpose of this study was to explore whether there was a linear relationship between visual memory and alcohol consumption in males and females in a large middle-aged birth cohort population in cross-sectional and longitudinal settings. Data were collected from 5585 participants completing 31-year (1997–1998) and 46-year (2012–2014) follow-ups including Paired Associate Learning (PAL) test at 46-years follow-up. The participants were originally from 12,231 study population of the Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1966 (NFBC1966). The PAL test was conducted to assess visual memory. Reported alcohol use was measured as total daily use of alcohol, beer, wine, and spirits converted into grams and as frequency and amount of use of beer, wine, and spirits. The total daily alcohol use was not associated with reduced visual memory. The frequency of use of beer and wine in males was associated with better visual memory in cross-sectional and longitudinal settings. Using six or more servings of spirits was associated with worse visual memory in males in cross-sectional and longitudinal settings. Using six or more servings of spirits was associated with worse visual memory in males in cross-sectional and longitudinal setting. The study suggested a lack of a linear association between drinking and visual memory in the middle-aged population.</jats:p

Visual memory and alcohol use in a middle-aged birth cohort.

Acknowledgements: Staff and participants of the NFBC1966 study.Funder: University of Oulu (including Oulu University Hospital)Light and moderate alcohol use has been reported to be associated with both impaired and enhanced cognition. The purpose of this study was to explore whether there was a linear relationship between visual memory and alcohol consumption in males and females in a large middle-aged birth cohort population in cross-sectional and longitudinal settings. Data were collected from 5585 participants completing 31-year (1997-1998) and 46-year (2012-2014) follow-ups including Paired Associate Learning (PAL) test at 46-years follow-up. The participants were originally from 12,231 study population of the Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1966 (NFBC1966). The PAL test was conducted to assess visual memory. Reported alcohol use was measured as total daily use of alcohol, beer, wine, and spirits converted into grams and as frequency and amount of use of beer, wine, and spirits. The total daily alcohol use was not associated with reduced visual memory. The frequency of use of beer and wine in males was associated with better visual memory in cross-sectional and longitudinal settings. Using six or more servings of spirits was associated with worse visual memory in males in cross-sectional and longitudinal settings. Using six or more servings of spirits was associated with worse visual memory in males in cross-sectional and longitudinal setting. The study suggested a lack of a linear association between drinking and visual memory in the middle-aged population

Mobile and web-based application to get solutions from drug addiction:telepsychiatry perspective

Abstract Background: In recent time, telepsychiatry has brought the revolutionary changes in the treatment of mental health sector. Telepsychiatry has received most significance as it can help in saving the time, cost and visits of the victims. Objectives: The main objective of this study is to assess the significance of telepsychiatry as a solution of drug addiction. Moreover, to analyze the comparative benefits of using telepsychiatry as a solution of drug addiction and the previous manual system and to evaluate whether using telepsychiatry can save the time, money and energy of the patients and their nearest persons, the study has been directed. Methodology: For this research study, both the primary and secondary data has been used and, in this regard, the primary data has been collected from 48 drug addicted people and 36 parents of the addicted people, where the research area is Dhaka, Bangladesh. Results: The results show that a large number of addict (89%) and their parents (85%) gets the information regarding the negative consequences of drug addiction from the internet. Moreover, the study also revealed that because of telepsychiatry, the time, money as well as energy of both the addicts and their parents have been saved. Conclusion: In Bangladesh, the necessity of telepsychiatry has been felt in recent time. In this regard, many organizations have started to understand to feel the significance and therefore, they have started to think about this issue. With this consequences, Thikana Psychiatric and Drug Addiction Clinic has already started their activities regarding telepsychiatry. It is hope that by ensuring mobile or web-based application can make revolutionary changes in the telepsychiatry of Bangladesh