ABSTRACT
Objective: To determine the preferred antipsychotic drug of mental health professionals
Material and Methods: This cross-sectional survey was conducted among mental healthcare professionals of 25 public/private healthcare facilities of Sindh and Blochistan provinces form April 2007 to March 2008. After approval from ethical committee of Dow University of Health Sciences mental health professionals [trainees, consultants with experience only and consultant with postgraduate qualification] present on the day of visit to a facility were approached and asked to fill a semi-structured questionnaire to determine the preferred antipsychotic for patient as well as for themselves if they got ill and the factors they consider while choosing that antipsychotic. Descriptive analysis of the data was performed by SPSS v. 14
Results: One-hundred five mental health professionals were divided in 3 groups i.e. trainees [29], experienced doctors [24] and consultants psychiatrists [52]. They have almost equal experience of using typical [48%] and atypical [49%] antipsychotic, but when asked to chose antipsychotic for themselves, atypical [81%] were preferred over typical [14%] antipsychotic with Risperidone as the most common choice [55%] followed by quetiapine, olanzapine and clozapine. Regarding the factors influencing prescription, efficacy and safety were most considered factor while choosing antipsychotic for themselves as compare to efficacy and cost while experiencing prescription for patients
Conclusion: Clinical approach varies while prescribing anti-psychotic drug for the patients and for themselves between typical and atypical. Efficacy and safety were considered while choosing for themselves, whereas efficacy and cost while prescribing for patients
ABSTRACT
Objective: to validate the use of Urdu Version of Hospital Anxiety Depression Scale as screening as well as quantifying tool for depression among non-psychiatric hospital population
Material and methods: this retrospective study was conducted at National Institute of Cardiovascular Disease [NICVD] Karachi and Civil Hospital Karachi [CHK] from 23rd October to 22nd November 1998. We searched the record of a previous study on the patients on myocardial infarction. A comparison of scores of Hospital Anxiety Depression Scale and Hamilton Depression Rating Scale, done on the patients with first myocardial infarction at an interval of about two weeks during hospitalization and after their discharge, was made
Results: correlation co-efficient between Hospital Anxiety Depression Scale scores and Hamilton Depression Rating Scale scores was found to be statistically significant [r =55; p<0.001]
Conclusion: results suggest that Hospital Anxiety Depression Scale can be used as an effective tool to screen and quantify depression