Long term effects of separation on the children of overseas contract workers

This study was undertaken to consider the impact of migration on the relationship between the OFW and the family. The general objectives was to determine the long-term effects of separation from the OFW parent on children in two selected barangays with specific objectives: (1) to determine the psychiatric morbidity among children; (2) to determine their behavioral patterns; (3) to describe the demographic data of the said population. The design of the study was a cross-sectional survey done in 2 barangays with a high density of OFWs. The Reporting Questionnaire for Children (RQC) which is an instrument designed to screen psychiatric disturbances in children and adolescents less than 18 years of age was used. A total 385 children took part in the study. Results showed that adaptive and maladaptive modes of coping were utilized by the children left behind by parents.

The prevalence of psychiatric disorders among the chronically-ill medical patients in selected tertiary hospitals in the Philippines

OBJECTIVE: This study was conducted to document the prevalence of psychiatric morbidity among chronically ill medical patients in selected hospitals in the Philippines. METHODS: This is a cross-sectional study of the chronically medically ill patients seen in selected Primary are Evaluation of Mental Disorders (PRIME-MD), 774 patients were screened for mental disorders. The prevalence of each of the psychiatric disorders were calculated using the formula for estimation of a proportion for stratified random sampling. The differences in the sample size from each of the study sites were taken into consideration in the estimation of the sitespecific prevalence of mental disorders. The 95 percent confidence intervals of the prevalence rates were computed. RESULTS: Almost half of the patients (47.8 percent) were diagnosed with at least one of the psychiatric disorders elicited from the PRIME-MD. Thirty two percent had depressive disorder, followed by anxiety disorder, somatoform disorders, alcohol-related disorder and eating disorder. According to hospital site, the overall prevalence rate of psychiatric disorder was noted to be highest at the Davao Medical Center. CONCLUSION: The overall prevalence of psychiatric disorder noted in this study was higher than that described in foreign literature, the most common of which was depression.