Unit cost of major depressive disorder in psychiatric ward, Siriraj Hospital.

Objective: To study the unit cost of treatment of major depressive disorder patients who were admitted into the psychiatric ward in Siriraj hospital in fiscal year 2001. Methods: This is a retrospective study from the view of providers. Data were collected from medical records and documents of the psychiatric ward and other departments. Results: In the fiscal year 2001, there were 202 hospitalized patients in the psychiatric ward, totaling 5,064 hospital days. Among them, there were 14 major depressive disorder patients who were included in this study. Total hospital days of major depressive disorder patients were 367. The average length of stay was 26.2 days. From this study, we found that the unit cost depression per person was 14,992.19 baht and the unit cost depression per day was 588.63 baht. Conclusion: The study enabled us to know the unit cost of treatment of major depressive disorder in-patients in Siriraj hospital which will be used as primary information for further study. Key words: unit cost, major depressive disorder

Erythrocytic glutathione peroxidase and lipid peroxidation in chronic renal failure patients.

Glutathione peroxidase (GPx) plays an important role in scavenging reactive oxygen metabolites and preventing the oxidative stress in the body. The purpose of this study is to investigate the levels of erythrocytic GPx activity and plasma malondialdehyde (MDA) in 25 chronic renal failure patients compared with 25 normal controls. The GPx activity in chronic renal failure patients was significantly lower than controls (22.6 + 5.5 U/gHb as 30.5 + 9.5 U/gHb respectively, p = 0.0033) and plasma malondialdehyde was significantly high in chronic renal failure patients compared to controls (78.89 + 55.38 ตmol/l vs 7.71 + 3.26 ตmol/l respec-tively, p< 0.0001). Lipid peroxidation product (MDA) correlated significantly with hemoglobin, hematorit, serum creatinine and creatinine clearance. Glutathione peroxidase also correlated significantly with serum creztinine. It was concluded that a decrease in reactive oxygen metabolite scavngers and increase in lipid peroxidation might contribute to might contribute to increase hemolysis and anemia in chronic renal failure.