Personality of students passing the entrance examination into siriraj medical school.

Objective: To compare the characteristic traits between groups and gender of students who were selected and not selected to Siriraj Medical School. To create data base of characteristic traits of medical students. Methods: A total of 329 students who passed the written examination into Siriraj Medical School in the year 2005 were examined by MMPI. Data analyses were done by SPSS/PC for Windows. The validity and clinical scales of MMPI were compared according to different groups and genders of the students. Results: The profile of all groups of students showed the characteristics of analytical thought, perfectionist, ambitious, high self-expectation, and expression (Ma, Sc, Pt, Mf, D, Hy). It was also found that female students had more confidence and self-expression than male. Conclusion: According to the finding that students had the characteristic of higher self-expectation and easily anxious, therefore the emotional management programs may help in mental health promotion and prevention besides the normal academic activities.

Research on development of the manual for self detection of depression in the Thai elderly.

The purposes of this study were to develop an effective manual for the early self detection of depression in the Thai elderly, to detect the comorbidity of depression (pattern of drug and alcohol abuse, suicidal idea) and to ascertain the quality of life. A quasi experimental field research methodology (Randomized Control Group Pretest-Posttest Design) was implemented. The sample consisted of 1,390 elderly people in 35 communities from 4 districts surrounding Siriraj Hospital-Bangkok Noi, Bangkok Yai, Taling Chan and Bang Phlat. These areas are the peripheral parts of Bangkok and most of them have extended families. The result showed that: 1. The internal consistency reliability of the nine criteria of the manual for the self detection of depression in the Thai elderly ranged from 0.84 to 0.94. The validity tested by epidemiological methods, disclosed that the sensitivity was 82.14 per cent and the specificity was 97.56 per cent. 2. There was a statistically significant difference in the incidence of depression between the study and the control group (p<0.000); self referred cases = 86.7 per cent and 9.8 per cent respectively. The study group was able to detect depression in 42 days, while the control group did so in 122 days. In addition, in the associated comorbidity, there were differences in the patterns of drug and alcohol abuse, suicidal ideas and quality of life after the experiment. These findings showed a decreasing pattern of self medication for depression, and suicidal ideas and an improvement in the quality of life in the study group.

Prevalence and incidence of depression in the Thai elderly.

The purposes of this study were to study the prevalence and incidence of depression in elderly Thais. A field survey study was implemented. The sample consisted of 1,713 elderly people in 35 communities from 4 districts surrounding Siriraj Hospital Bangkok Noi, Bangkok Yai, Taling Chun and Bang Plud. These areas are the peripheral part of Bangkok and most of them have extended family. The Thai Geriatric Depression Scale (TGDS) and the Thai Mini Mental State Examination (TMSE) were used as screening tests, for data collection. The prevalence of depression was 12.78 per cent, of which 8.23 per cent had only depressive symptomatology (male 5.43%, female 9.63%) while 4.55 per cent had both depression and cognitive impairment (male 2.8%, female 5.54%). The point incidence (one year) of depression was 7.27 (male 1.58%, female 5.68%). The major contributing factors in depression were financial, poor family relationships and physical illness. The prevention and management of these factors may bring about a better quality of life for the elderly in Thailand.

Neuroleptic malignant syndrome in a diabetic patient with eye complication and acute psychosis.

Neuroleptic malignant syndrome is a life-threatenting complica-tion of antipsychotic treatment. The prevalence is estimated to be 0.02 to 2.4 percent of patients exposed to dopamine receptor antagonists. Mortality rates are reported to be 10-20 percent. The important clinical signs and symptoms are severe muscle rigidity and fever. Other features are changes in level of consciousness ranging from confusion to coma, autonomic instability and laboratory evidence of muscle injury (eg, elevated CPK). We report a diabetic patient with eye complications and acute psychosis, developing neuroleptic malignant syndrome four days after receiving haloperidol 15 mg/day. The patient recovered well within 5 days after discontinuation of haloperidol and symptomatic treatment and had undergone an eye operation which yielded good result.