Frequency of ICD-10 psychiatric diagnosis in children with intellectual disability in Lahore, Pakistan and caregivers perspective

Association between Intellectual disability [ID] and psychiatric disorders in children and adolescents is well established but there is a paucity of published studies from Pakistan on this topic. The main aim of the study was to assess the frequency of ICD-10 psychiatric diagnosis in the hospital outpatient sample of children with ID in Lahore, Pakistan as well as to find out which challenging behaviors, caregivers find difficult to manage in this setup. Socio-demographic information was collected, Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised and ICD-10 diagnostic criteria was used to assess children [age range 6–16 years] with suspected ID along with identification of behaviors found to be difficult to manage by caregivers. 150 children were assessed with mean age of 10.7 years [males 70%]. Majority [72%] had mild ID while 18.7% and 9.3% had moderate and severe ID respectively. Thirty percent of children met the criteria for any psychiatric diagnosis, the most common being Oppositional Defiant Disorder [14%] and Hyperkinetic Disorders [10%]. Verbal and physical aggression, school difficulties, socialization problems, inappropriate behaviors [e.g. disinhibition], sleep and feeding difficulties were the significant areas identified by the caregivers as a cause of major concern. Significantly high prevalence of ICD-10 psychiatric diagnosis in children with ID was found in Lahore, Pakistan. Support services for these children should be responsive not only to the needs of the child, but also to the needs of the family

Psychological problems in children of parents with mental illness: a comparative study from Lahore, Pakistan

Mental illness in parents and its link with adverse outcomes for children has been well reported in western literature, but there is a paucity of published studies from Pakistan on this issue. The aim of our study was to determine the prevalence of psychological problems in children of parents having mental illness and to compare it with children of parents without any diagnosed psychiatric problems in urban area of a developing country. A case control study was conducted from January to April 2008 in Lahore. Following informed consent, cases were recruited through interviewing psychiatric patients. Controls were children of parents with no diagnosed psychiatric illness and were recruited through a school. A structured questionnaire for demographic information, and Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire [SDQ] were filled in by parents. Seventy- six parents were recruited to get a sample of 200 children. [100 cases, 100 controls]. The mean age of children was 9.7 years and 111[55.5%] were boys. Children of parents with psychiatric problems had almost two times higher rate of mental health problems compared to controls [55% versus 28%; P value <0.001]. Emotional difficulties [P=0.028] and conduct problems [P=0.025] were found to be statistically significant. Boys were more likely to be hyperactive and have conduct and social difficulties. Girls had higher rates of emotional problems. Children of parents with mental illness are at much higher risk of childhood psychiatric problems. Risk was higher for males than females. Majority of parents had not sought any help for their children difficulties

Rate of acquisition and extinction of key-pecking response in pigeons as a function of experimentally induced frustration by blocking of reward

The present study primarily focused on the role of experimentally induced frustration in the acquisition of conditioned response and its extinction in pigeons. Behaviour of six male pigeons of approximately same adlibitum weight, three in each group, were studied under two competing treatment conditions in multipli cross-combinations. The findings revealed that, other factors held constant, the frustrated pigeons demonstrated faster and more efficient learning [acquisition of key-pecking conditioned response] as compared to their counterparts, the non-frustrated pigeons. Similar comparisons on the rate of extinction revealed that frustrated pigeons were more resistant to extinction and took longer in extinguishing the learned response