Caregiver burden, quality of life and vulnerability towards psychopathology in caregivers of patients with dementia/Alzheimer's disease

Objective: To identify caregivers' burden, evaluate quality of life in them; and predict anxiety and depression in caregivers of patients with Alzheimer's disease [AD]

Study Design: Cross-sectional study

Place and Duration of Study: Neurology and Psychiatry Department of Lahore General Hospital [LGH], from January to December, 2013

Methodology: A purposive sample of 60 caregivers, who had been taking care of patients with AD for more than one year, were recruited from the study centre. The Zarit Burden Interview was used to assess caregiver burden. The brief version of World Health Organization Quality of Life Scale to assess quality of life and anxiety and depression subscales of symptom checklist-revised were administered to assess caregivers' vulnerability towards psychopathology

Results: There were 6 males and 54 females caregivers with mean age of 37.60 +/- 14.87 years. The burden of caregiving had negative relationship [-0.57; -0.50; -0.48; and -0.50, respectively] with physical, psychological, social, and environmental domains of quality of life. Neither caregiver burden nor quality of life predicted for anxiety and depression in the caregivers

Conclusion: Caregiver burden may impair quality of life of caregivers but results imply the need to identify the interpersonal and intrapersonal characteristics of caregivers that buffered the adverse effects of caregiver burden and impaired the quality of life on psychological wellbeing of the patients with AD

Major depression in Jalal Pur Jattan, district Gujrat, Pakistan: Prevalence and gender differences

To assess the prevalence of depression along gender lines in the general population. Using multistage stratified proportionate sampling, the cross-sectional study was conducted in four Union Councils of Jalal Pur Jattan in Gujrat, Pakistan from November 2011 to November 2012. From each stratum, two samples were taken: adults and adolescents. Then each sample was divided into adult males and adult females [20-45 years]; adolescent boys and adolescent girls [13-19 years]. The questionnaire was developed on the basis of diagnostic criteria given in the revised version of the fourth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Of the total population of 28,259, 1117[3.6%] were approached for the study. Of them, 1110[99.3%] people participated. Overall, 173[15%] were found to be vulnerable to psychological problems whereas 59 [5.31%] were found as vulnerable cases to depression. However, the diagnosis of major depression was handed to 38[3.4%] respondents. Of these 38 subjects, 7[18.42%] persons were suffering from mild; 22[57.89%] from moderate, and 9[23.68%] from severe symptoms. Further, 30[78.9%] of these subjects were women. Major depression was prevailing in the community of Jalal Pur Jattan in almost the same ratio as in other places around the globe, and, therefore, the inhabitants need psychiatric services

Personality traits of prison inmates of Pakistan and their vulnerability towards different psychopathologies

The present study was conducted to assess the personality traits of Pakistani prison inmates both men and women and their vulnerability towards various psychopathologies. Centre for Clinical Psychology, University of the Punjab, Lahore-Pakistan from March 2005 to September, 2005. Exploratory study. Purposive sampling strategy was used to select the sample. The sample consisted of 50 men [Mean age= 35.6 years] and 30 women [Mean age= 38.2 years] prison inmates and minimum level of education was matric [10 years of schooling]. All prison inmates were taken from Central Jail, Lahore, Pakistan. 16 Personality Factors Questionnaire was administered to assess the personality traits. An indigenous checklist named: Symptom Checklist-R[2] was used to see the vulnerability of prison inmates towards various psychopathologies. Results indicated that majority of the men prison inmates possessed introvert type of personality, had emotional instability and poor social skills. The results of Symptom Checklist-R indicated that 34% of the subjects scored high on Depression, 26% on Somatoform, 16%; on Anxiety; 32% on Obsessive Compulsive Disorder [OCD]; 26% on Schizophrenia and 10% on Level of Frustration Tolerance [LFT] scale. On the other hand, majority of the women prison inmates exhibited aloofness, low mental capacity, introversion, suspiciousness, jealousy, anxiety and poor self control as salient traits of their personality. While results of Symptom Checklist-Revised revealed that 70% of the subjects scored significantly high on Depression, 63% on Somatoform, 34% on Anxiety, 57% on Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, 23% on Schizophrenia and 66% on Level of Frustration Tolerance scale. The findings lead towards poor mental health and personality problems of the prison inmates, so it is imperative to devise some preventive measures to control crimes and there is also a need to improve the condition of the jails in Pakistan

Standardization of symptom checklist-R on psychiatric and non psychiatric sample of Lahore city

The present research was conducted to standardize Symptom Checklist-R on psychiatric and non psychiatric population of Lahore city. Lahore. The research consisted of two stages. At stage one, an indigenous Symptom Checklist developed by Rahman and Sitwat in 1990[1], was reviewed by the research team comprising of 4 trainees of Advanced Diploma in Clinical Psychology and I supervisor. After thorough review, 83 more symptoms were added in that indigenous list of symptoms according to DSM-IV[APA, 1994][2][to make the checklist more comprehensive to use with the psychiatric population. After finalizing the list, Symptom Checklist-R was administered on a sample of 120 subjects residing in different areas of Lahore city from different socioeconomic classes: lower; middle and upper. The analyses of each item revealed that no item /symptom obtained a mean value of more than 7 which clearly show that the non psychiatric respondents did not experience any of these symptoms which were related to different psychopathologies. To determine reliability of SCL-R, 120 subjects from non psychiatric population and 45 subjects from psychiatric population were re-administered the SCL-R within 7-10 days. For the validation of the checklist, 120 psychiatric subjects diagnosed as having different psychopathologies were administered SCL-R along with some other translated instrument. 30 depressed patients were administeredSCL-R and BDI-II[3]; 18 somatic patients were administered SCL-R and two scales: Hysteria and Somatic Anxiety of CCEI[4]; 30 anxiety patients were administered SCL-R and STAI[5], 20 OCD patients were administered SCL-R and Padua Inventory; 32 psychotic patients were administered SCL-R and PANSS[6] and all psychiatric patients were administered LFT scale of SCL-R along with LFT Inventory[7], The psychiatric sample was collected from each of the above mentioned pathologies from different psychiatric units of teaching hospitals: Sir Ganga Ram; Mayo; Services; Punjab Institute of Mental Health [PIMH], Lahore and from out patient clinic of Centre for Clinical Psychology, University of the Punjab, Lahore. The high correlation coefficients between the scores of SCL-R and scores on other instruments clearly indicate that SCL-R is a reliable and valid tool to diagnose psychiatric clients. After determining reliability and validity of SCL-R, the cut offs based on psychiatric and non psychiatric population -were developed separately to use the checklist to diagnose different psychopathologies

Level of frustration tolerance and its relationship with different psychopathologies

The present research focuses on the relationship between level of frustration tolerance and different psychopathologies: Depression; Somatoform; Anxiety; Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and Schizophrenia. The research consisted of two stages. At stage one, the Low Frustration Inventory developed by Knaus [1983] was translated and adapted into Urdu language to use it with the Pakistani population. The LFT inventory was administered on a sample of 120 subjects residing in different areas of Lahore city from different socioeconomic strata which included low; middle and high. To find the reliability of LFT inventory, 60 subjects were re-administered the LFT inventory after 15 days. For the validation of the inventory, 120 subjects from the same areas were administered the LFT inventory along-with the Scale of LFT of Symptom Checklist-R [Rahman, Dawood, et al., In Press]. At stage two, the focus was to find the relationship between LFT and different psychopathologies: Depression; Somatoform; Anxiety; Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and Schizophrenia. A sample of 30 subjects from each of the above mentioned pathologies was taken from different psychiatric units of teaching hospitals: Sir Ganga Ram; Mayo; Services; Punjab Institute of Mental Health [PIMH], Lahore and Centre for Clinical Psychology, University of the Punjab, Lahore. The psychopathology of each subject was assessed through Symptom Checklist-R and level of frustration tolerance was assessed through LFT inventory originally developed by Knaus in 1983, translated and adapted by Dawood and Rahman to use in present research. The results indicate a positive relationship of low frustration tolerance with each one of the above mentioned psychopathologies

Development of an indigenous scale for emotional intelligence based on goleman's model: a perspective of Pakistani clinical psychologists

The present study aimed to develop an indigenous scale of emotional intelligence while following the theoretical rationale of Goleman's model [1995], which consists of five main domains: Self Awareness; Self Regulation; Motivation; Empathy and Social Skills with 19 sub-domains. To develop an item pool for the scale, the qualified clinical psychologists of Pakistan [N=220] were requested to formulate questions on different sub domains of Goleman's model. It was done through a mailed survey, 38% responses were received from the sample. The researcher listed all the elicited opinions and classified items in each scale separately, which was later scrutinized by the research team, which included the researcher, supervisor and the co supervisor. Duplications were deleted and some of them were modified according to their relevance to the respective domain. Furthermore, from a pool of 925 items which was received, a total of 321 items were finally scrutinized and classified in different sub domains of each scale. The title of each sub-domain was also given by the research team after critically examining the domain and it's contents. For construct validity of the scale, the already selected 321 items were sent to a panel of '8' experts who had the practical experience of a minimum of 15 years in mental health profession, which included clinical psychologists who consented to participate as judges. They were asked to rate each item on a 1 to 5 point scale for it's relevance and suitability in each of the sub domains given by Goleman. The items which obtained a mean value of '3' were retained in the final scale

Impact of females' education on their marital adjustment

The present research was conducted to see the impact of females' education on their marital adjustment. A sample of 90 married females consisting of three groups: [i] highly educated, [ii] educated and [iii] minimally educated females were selected [30 in each subgroup]. The age range of married females was 20-40 years. The sample was drawn from the different areas of Lahore city. A comprehensive Marital Adjustment Questionnaire was devised and administrated by the researchers which assessed the respondents' relationship with in-laws, financial adjustment, leisure-time being spend with the spouse, mutual understanding between spouses, marital satisfaction and satisfaction with their educational level. The results [t=5.86; df=58;*p<.05] indicate that the highly educated females [X=129] are more well adjusted in their marital lives as compared to the educated females [X=113]. The results further indicate [t=5.74; df=58;*p<.05] that educated females [X=113] are better than minimally educated females [X=96] in terms of their marital adjustment. The research findings further indicate a high positive relationship [r=.73] between the females' satisfaction with their educational level and marital adjustment. Thus, it may be argued that Pakistani non-working females' education would enhance their marital adjustment