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@#Aims: This review aimed to comprehensively examine kratom’s therapeutic potential for treatment of mental health-related issues as well as any related benefits and risks. Design: Systematic review. Data sources: Google Scholar, Web of Science, PubMed, Scopus, PsycINFO, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, and Medline. Review methods: Three authors carried out electronic search of articles published between 1950 to September 2022 through major databases for a duration of three months (from July to September 2022). Each author independently screened the literature for inclusion and exclusion criteria, the findings were then compared, discrepancies between authors were resolved, and the final selection of articles were reviewed. Results: A total of 46 articles were included in this review. A total of three in vitro and animal studies and five cross-sectional online surveys reported the therapeutic potential of kratom in opioid replacement therapy. In addition, a total of two animal studies and three cross-sectional online surveys highlighted the role of kratom as a potential antidepressant and anxiolytic. Contrastingly, two animal studies, 11 studies in human subjects, and 16 case reports documented the risk of kratom dependence, cravings, tolerance, and kratom-related substance use disorder as the major safety concern of implementing kratom use as a therapeutic agent. Conclusion and impact: In the absence of human clinical trial, coupled with various considerable adverse events of kratom (not limited to psychological side effects), evidence to support kratom as potential therapeutic use remains inconclusive.
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@#Introduction: Cancer patients’ perception on the treatment they received is vital to determine their adherence to cancer treatment, but important data on how this variable affects posttraumatic growth (PTG) experience by cancer patients is lacking. This cross-sectional study aimed to evaluate the degree of PTG among a cohort of head and neck cancer (HNC) survivors who were within first year of diagnosis and determined the association between perception of cancer treatment received (expectation and satisfaction with cancer treatment received and the feeling about the adverse effects) and PTG controlling for socio-demographic and clinical characteristics. Methods: HNC survivors were recruited from two oncology referral centres, and they were administered socio-demographic and clinical characteristics questionnaire, the Malay version of the Cancer Therapy Satisfaction Questionnaire (CTSQ) (to assess the satisfaction, expectation and feeling about the adverse effects of cancer treatment received) and the Malay version of the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory-Short Form (PTGi-SF) (to measure the degree of PTG). Results: A total of 200 HNC survivors participated in the study. The mean total PTGI-SF score was 39.5 (standard deviation [SD] = 9.3). Greater degree of positive expectation of cancer treatment and satisfaction with cancer treatment received significantly contributed to higher level of PTG, whereas feeling about side effects of treatment was not associated with PTG, after controlling for socio-demographic and clinical characteristics. Conclusion: Incorporating psychosocial interventions (such as education on cancer treatment and counselling) into the treatment regimen may facilitate development of PTG and hence, safeguard the mental well-being of HNC patients.
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@#Introduction: Fear of cancer progression may lead to worsening of psychological complications of cancer and affects the quality of life of cancer patients. Hence, fear of cancer progression needs to be monitored. This study translated the original English version of the Fear of Progression Questionnaire-Short Form (FoP-Q-SF) into the Malay language and investigated the reliability and validity of the Malay version of the FoP-Q-SF (FoP-Q-SF-M) among Malaysian cancer patients. Methods: Concurrent translation and back translation of the English version of the FoP-Q-SF to the FoP-Q-SF-M was performed, and the FoP-Q-SF-M and the Malay version of the Cancer Therapy Satisfaction Questionnaire (CTSQ-M) (as a comparison to assess the discriminant validity of the FoP-Q-SF-M) were administered to 200 cancer patients with different sites, stages, and duration of cancer diagnosis. Results: The CTSQ-M exhibited excellent internal consistency (Cronbach’s α= 0.927) as well as demonstrated good convergent and discriminant validity. Exploratory factor analysis of the FoP-Q-SF-M extracted one factor with twelfth items, thereby this supports the single-factor model reported by the English version of the FoP-Q-SF. Conclusion: The FoP-Q-SF-M exhibited acceptable psychometric properties and valid for use to assess fear of cancer progression in the Malaysian cancer population.
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Abstract@#Introduction: Kratom which is a tropical plant use as traditional remedy in rural areas of Malaysia and Thailand has recently been a research focus worldwide due to its potential as substitution therapy for opioid addiction. However, data on its effect on the quality of life of kratom users is scarce. This study aimed to describe the socio-demographic and history of kratom use as well as assessing the quality of life and its associated factors in Malaysian kratom users. Methods: This cross-sectional survey recruited 150 kratom users and they were administered with socio-demographic and substance history questionnaires, the World Health Organization Quality of Life- BREF (WHOQOL-BREF) to assess quality of life and the Kratom Dependence Scale (KDS) to assess severity of kratom dependence. Results: Respondents were all males with mean age of 34.4 years old (SD= 11.2). Sixty-percent of respondents use kratom > 6 years (mean duration = 8.5 years, SD= 5.3) while 55% (n=83/150) used >3 glasses of kratom daily. Duration of kratom use, quantity of kratom use and severity of kratom dependence were not associated with all the domains of quality of life except severe kratom dependence users had significant lower physical quality of life score when compared to that of users with mild to moderately severe kratom dependence. Conclusion: Based on our study, kratom consumption does not cause impairment in quality of life of kratom users except for severe kratom dependence which may cause deterioration in physical well-being of users.
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This case reported highlighted psychotic disorder due to dengue fever is rare. Hence we describe a case which clearly presented with psychotic symptoms during the illness. Methods: We reported a case of psychotic disorder due to dengue fever who presented with psychotic symptoms of auditory and visual hallucination, and persecutory delusion, which had significant temporal correlation with dengue fever symptoms. There were no neurological deficits noted, no altered sensorium and cognitive impairment during the episode. He has no past and family history of mental illness and there was no evidence of encephalitis and metabolic disturbances. Results: Our case suggests that prominent psychotic symptoms can occur during an episode of dengue fever, which remitted when one recovering from dengue fever. Conclusion: We demonstrated that patients who presented with the acute onset of psychosis accompanied by symptoms of viral fever should be screened for dengue fever, particularly if the person lived in or visited the area where dengue fever is endemic. ASEAN Journal of Psychiatry, Vol. 18 (1): January – June 2017: XX XX.
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Objective: It is important to investigate the association between spousal support and psychology of cancer patients, thus a validated instrument to measure the degree of perceived spousal support is required. We translated and evaluated the psychometric properties of the Sources of Social Support Scale-Malay version (SSSS-Malay) among Malaysian cancer patients. Methods: In this study, the SSSS-Malay and Hope Scale-Malay [used to compare with the SSSS-Malay to assess discriminant validity] were administered to 195 Malaysian cancer patients during baseline assessment. The SSSS-Malay was re-administered 2 months after the baseline assessment during follow-up. Results: The SSSS-Malay total score (Cronbach’s α = 0.70, intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) = 0.72) and its domains (Cronbach’s α ranging from 0.70 to 0.83, intraclass correlation coefficient ranging from 0.6 to 0.76) exhibited good internal consistencies and good test-retest reliability. The SSSS-Malay also demonstrated good convergent and discriminant validities. However, confirmatory factor analysis of the SSSSMalay showed that it was best fit into a 3-factor model instead of the 4-factor model of the original English version. Conclusion: The SSSS-Malay demonstrated good psychometric properties for use in Malaysian cancer patients.