Prevalence of Depression, Anxiety and their associated factors among medical students in Karachi, Pakistan

To estimate the prevalence of anxiety, depression and their associated risk factors among students of a public medical college in Karachi, Pakistan, A cross sectional study was done on the students of a public sector, who had spent more than six months in the medical college and had no physical or mental illness other than anxiety and depression. A self administered questionnaire was given out to students who were randomly selected from the list of names obtained from the college administration. Primary outcome was anxiety and depression which was defined as a cut of score 19 or above on AKUADS. Multivariable models were built and logistic regression analysis was performed to determine the factors independently associated with the primary. The mean [SD] age of the students was 21.3 [1.88] years. Majority of the students were females. A very high prevalence of anxiety and depression [70%] was found among students. Students using substance abuse, having family history of depression and anxiety and those who had lost a relative in last 1 year were 2.66, 2.35, 3.4 times more likely to be depressed and suffered from anxiety, respectively. This study suggests that there are certain risk factors other than academic stressors which predispose a medical student to psychological morbidity such as anxiety and depression

Stability of total cholesterol and triglyceride in whole blood with regard to storage temperature and duration

This study was conducted in order to determine the effect of storage conditions [temperature and duration] on the level of plasma total cholesterol and triglyceride. Venous blood from 23 volunteers with over night fast was collected in commercial heparin tubes. Aliquots of 0.5 ml were transferred to 1.5 ml polypropylene tubes, plasma from 1 aliquot was immediately separated and analyzed [zero time value] and remaining plasma preserved at 4°C and reanalyzed daily for 7 days. The remaining aliquots containing whole blood were kept at room temperature. The results showed that the specimen at 4°C did not show statistically significant difference in total cholesterol and triglyceride concentrations when compared to zero time value. But the specimen preserved as whole blood at room temperature showed a continuous rise in plasma total cholesterol concentration and fall in plasma triglyceride concentration over 72 hours. This concludes that proper storage conditions are necessary for correct reliable results in blood chemistry