Disability and socio-occupational functioning in persons with schizophrenia

Background: Schizophrenia is a chronic mental illness which severely affects the functioning of individuals in their daily life. Functional disability in chronic illness is one of the major concerns for mental health professionals. The study aims to assess the disability of persons with schizophrenia and its relationship with age of onset, total duration of illness, and socio-occupational functioning. Methods and materials: The present study is a descriptive cross-sectional study. Sixty persons with schizophrenia were selected using simple random sampling from the outpatient department (OPD). Written informed consent was taken from the participants who fulfilled the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Clarifications were made regarding the basic purpose of the study before administration of tools. The study was undertaken with the permission of the Scientific Advisory and Institute Ethics committees. Sociodemographic datasheet, the revised Kuppuswamy scale, the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS), the Indian Disability Evaluation and Assessment Scale (IDEAS), and the Social Occupational Functioning Scale (SOFS) were administered. Collected data were analysed using the software (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences [SPSS] 25.0) using the statistical methods of mean, standard deviation, frequency, percentage, and Pearson correlation. Results: The findings showed that most of the respondents (71.7%) were having moderate level of disability and moderate impairment (40%) in socio-occupational functioning. The global score of disability has a significant positive correlation with total duration of illness (r=0.255, p<0.05) and negative correlation with age of onset of illness (r=-0.075), and there is significant positive correlation (r=0.829, p<0.01) between socio-occupational functioning and global disability. Conclusion: Disability has an impact on socio-occupational functioning in persons with schizophrenia. A higher level of disability can lead to higher level of impairment.

Standard operating procedure for audio visual recording of informed consent: An initiative to facilitate regulatory compliance.

The office of the Drugs Controller General (India) vide order dated 19th November 2013 has made audio visual (AV) recording of the informed consent mandatory for the conduct of all clinical trials in India. We therefore developed a standard operating procedure (SOP) to ensure that this is performed in compliance with the regulatory requirements, internationally accepted ethical standards and that the recording is stored as well as archived in an appropriate manner. The SOP was developed keeping in mind all relevant orders, regulations, laws and guidelines and have been made available online. Since, we are faced with unique legal and regulatory requirements that are unprecedented globally, this SOP will allow the AV recording of the informed consent to be performed, archived and retrieved to demonstrate ethical, legal and regulatory compliance. We also compared this to the draft guidelines for AV recording dated 9th January 2014 developed by Central Drugs Standard Control Organization. Our future efforts will include regular testing, feedback and update of the SOP.

Teaching Aids in Pharmacology Teaching and Learning Methodology: A Study from a Medical College of Nepal.

The main objective of the study was to find out students liking regarding the various audio visual aids which can improve the lectures in Pharmacology in future in Nepal.This was a cross sectional questionnaire based study was carried out at Manipal College of Medical Sciences, Pokhara, Nepal between January - July 2013. Chi square test were used for analytical purpose. We calculated odds ratios and their 95% confidence intervals (95% CI).P-value < 0.05 was considered to be statistically significant. Questionnaire validation tests showed that the Alpha Cronbach was 0.68. Two eighty two preclinical medical students participated in the study. Two seventy two students completed the questionnaire completely and their responses were evaluated which gives an overall response rate of 96.45%. 52.6% of the students were males and rest were females. Based on the Nationality 41.2% were Indians followed by Nepali 30.1%, Srilankan 25.7% and Maldivian were 2.9%. According to the students the best teaching aids were combination of teaching aids was opted by 61% of the students followed by power point presentation 31.6%, black board 5.9% and dictating notes 1.5%. Most of the students preferred handouts after lectures 56.6% and 43.4% preferred taking notes during lecture classes. Female student preferred taking lecture notes whereas male students preferred taking handouts after the lecture class. It was found that male student has a [OR 4.834, 95% (CI 2.882, 8.109)] more tendency of taking hand outs after the lecture class as compared to taking down notes during lectures. This finding was statistically significant (P<0.05). It is concluded from the study that a combination of different Audio visual aids, viz. blackboard presentation and power point presentation together can improve the lectures and will facilitate the medical student to understand Pharmacology in a better way.

A cohort study of correlation between body mass index and age at menarche in healthy Bengali girls.

There are contradictory reports of lowering of age at menarche due to increasing body mass index (BMI) in the population. It is not known if a greater BMI at menarche is associated with a lower menarcheal age in healthy Bengali girls of normal nutrition. In this study the age at menarche was determined in 273 Bengali girls of middle income families. It was assessed whether BMI standard deviation scores (SDS) at menarche, BMI SDS at one year preceding menarche and BMI increments during that year were in correlation with age at menarche. The age of the girls with adequate nutrition was 8-16 years. They were examined for BMI, pubertal breast staging and age at menarche over a 4-year follow-up period. BMI SDS were calculated from National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) normative data. The median age at menarche of 12.0 (range 10.0 - 16.0) years did not correlate with BMI SDS at menarche or BMI SDS at one year preceding menarche in this cohort. In univariate analysis, BMI increments for a given breast stage did not significantly lower the age at menarche. The change of BMI in the year preceding menarche did not correlate with age at menarche. The age at menarche in healthy Bengali girls of middle income families was similar to that of other Indian observations. There was no influence of BMI increments or that of BMI SDS prior to or at menarche on age at menarche.

Body mass index in Bengali adolescents.

We describe a mixed longitudinal analysis of body mass index (BMI) in a group of Bengali adolescents (age 11-17 years) from a middle income family background and compare this against existing national and international data. Healthy school children, comprising of 416 boys and 343 girls were consented for annual repeat measurements of weight, height and pubertal staging between the years 1998 and 2001. The LMS method was used to construct smoothed BMI mean and standard deviation (SD) curves. Bengali adolescents have lower BMI than affluent Indian children and are -1 to -2 SD below US children. BMI increases in adolescence (boys: r = 0.49, p < 0.001, girls: r = 0.54, P < 0.001) with age but SMR does not have an independent effect on BMI.

Impact of linear alkyl benzene sulphonate (LAS) on phosphatase activity in testis of the teleostean fish, Heteropneustes fossilis (Bloch).

Fishes are sensitive indicators of pollutants present in water.These pollutants cause various physical and physiological alterations in fishes. In the present work alteration in the activity of acid and alkaline phosphatase was evaluated in testicular tissue of fresh water fish Heteropneustes fossilis exposed to LC50 value of linear alkyl benzene sulphonate (LAS) for different exposure periods [24 h, 48 h, 72 h and 96 h] With increase in the concentration of chemical LAS, the activity of acid phosphatase (ACP) was reported elevated while a significant fall in the activity of alkaline phosphatase (ACP) was recorded for same exposure period. Elevated activity of ACP, one of the important hydrolases of lysosomes, is quite suggestive of bringing about gross necrosis and dysarchitecture. ALP is involved in various metabolic activities including gonadal maturation and as such decreased activity of this enzyme is definitely one of the important causative factors for reproductive impairment of the fish.