Relationship between Perceived Social Support and Severity of Symptoms in Persons with Somatoform Disorder.

Somatization is a common problem in primary health care leading to disproportionately heavy demands on health services. Patients with somatoform disorder account for about 20% of the workload in general practice. In somatoform disorder multiple or unexplained physical symptoms cause substantial disability in patients, while their psychiatric distress remains unrecognised and untreated. Studies have shown that good perceived social support improves the well-being of a person and also affects the outcome of treatment in somatoform disorder. Our study aimed at investigating relationship of severity of somatic symptoms and perceived social support in people with somatoform disorder.METHODSThis study is a cross-sectional single interview study in a tertiary care centre. All patients attending psychiatry OPD of R. G. Kar Medical College and Hospital, Kolkata, diagnosed with somatoform disorder (ICD-10) fulfilling inclusion and exclusion criteria were included in this study. Total 60 patients were selected. Inclusion criteria include patients aged between 18 to 60 years, both sexes and exclusion criteria include patients with mental retardation, epilepsy, any other neurological disorder and with co-morbid mental disorder. Patient Health Questionnaire-15 (PHQ-15) and Multidimensional scale of perceived social support assessment were used to assess severity of somatic symptoms and perceived social support respectively. Data was then analysed using standard statistical methods.RESULTSOur study revealed that women (93.33%) reported more somatic symptoms than men (6.66%). There was highly significant (p value=0.00) negative correlation (r=-0.76) between social support and severity of somatic symptoms i.e. patients who perceived high acuity of social support were reported to have less severity of somatic symptoms.

Sociodemographic Factors Associated with Deliberate Self Harm in Two Different Age Groups.

Objective: To study the different demographic and social factors predisposing to deliberate self harm in young (15 – 24 years) and elderly (45-74 years) people and compare. Method: Consecutive cases of Deliberate self harm attending Psychiatry OPD and admitted to Medical, Surgical and Psychiatric wards of R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital were studied. Demographic history was taken both from patient and family members. For social factors two scales were used – Modified Kuppuswamy’s socioeconomic rating scale for urban people and Pareekh’s scale for rural people. Results: Demographic factors- In the present study some factors were found to be same but certain factors were found to be significantly different in these two age groups. In young age group females outnumbered males by a ratio of 3.8:1, whereas in elderly group number of females was less than males-ratio 1:2.1 In both groups Hindus were most common; most people came from urban area and studied up to secondary level. In young group most male people were self employed or students whereas elderly males were mostly in service or self employed workers, rest were retired. Most females in both groups were housewives. In young group 54.1% were single, rest were married. In elderly group all were married, but 12% were separated or divorced, widow or widower. In both groups most people came from small (member<5) nuclear family. Socioeconomic status: In both groups most people were from social class IV. Conclusion- Apart from age and sex composition there is not much difference in sociodemographic profile between young and elderly DSH patients. The difference found in marital status and occupation was probably due to their age difference.

Diagnostic evaluation of childhood cervical lymphadenopathy by fine needle aspiration cytology.

Lymphadenopathy is an age old affliction of mankind. It is one of the very common presentations in clinical practice. The present study was carried out to evaluate the merits and demerits of fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) as a diagnostic procedure in childhood lymphadenopathy in comparison to open surgical biopsy. Altogether 70 children with lymphadenopathy in the age group of up to 12 years were selected for FNAC. Only 38 could be motivated for open surgical biopsy. Out of 38 cases, FNAC was consistent with histopathology in 33 cases, thus giving a diagnostic accuracy or percentage of agreement-86.8%. The diagnostic accuracy of FNAC, sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive values of FNAC in the present study were fairly high ranging from 80%-100%. FNAC gave false positive diagnosis in 13.2% cases and false negative result in 13.2% cases.