ABSTRACT
@#Background & Objectives: Depression, anxiety and suicide are the main psychiatric comorbidities which are more prevalent among persons with epilepsy (PWE). This study aims to determine the prevalence of depression, anxiety and suicidal ideation/behaviour in PWE and to correlate their clinical profile with psychiatric comorbidities in a population in North India. Methods: This study was conducted at Pt. BD Sharma PGIMS, Rohtak Haryana among PWE attending outpatient clinic at the Department of Neurology. A total of 100 eligible PWE were included in this study. The demographic and clinical history was documented. All patients filled up the Hospital anxiety and depression scale (HADS) and Columbia-suicide severity rating scale (C-SSRS) questionnaire. Results: The prevalence of depression and anxiety among PWE was found to be 60% and 70% respectively and the prevalence of suicidal ideation and suicidal behaviour was 42% and 3% respectively among PWE. Female gender, longer duration of epilepsy, higher seizure frequency, temporal lobe epilepsy, polytherapy, uncontrolled epilepsy and drug resistant epilepsy were found to be positively correlated with these psychiatric comorbidities. Conclusion: This study shows that the prevalence of depression, anxiety and suicidal ideation/ behaviour is high among PWE in Haryana, North India. PWE should be screened for these psychiatric comorbidities to improve their quality of life
ABSTRACT
The present study reports on chromium (VI) tolerance of two cyanobacterial strains Nostoc linckia and Nostoc spongiaeforme isolated from salt affected soils using uni-algal and bi-algal systems. Besides distinct halophilism, the two strains exhibited remarkable tolerance to chromium (VI) and revealed 1.2 to 2.8 times more chlorophyll in the presence of the metal. While phycobilins and carotenoids also increased in Nostoc linckia with total dissolved salts (TDS) as well as metal, a decline was observed in Nostoc spongiaeforme in the presence of Cr (VI). Relative algal biomass (as % of control) showed significantly higher values (123-239) in Nostoc linckia in the presence of salt, metal and combination of the two. In Nostoc spongiaeforme it declined in the presence of metal (72-81) but increased in the presence of salts (143-249) and also in the binary systems (121-440). The bi-algal consortium showed relatively less tolerance to salt and metal stress. Nostoc linckia (20 day culture) showed upto 40% chromium removal whereas Nostoc spongiaeforme showed up to 12% removal, indicating greater suitability of the former for use in bioremediation studies.