Methamphetamine (YABA) Abuse: A Case Study in Young Male.

Methamphetamine dependence is a serious worldwide public health problem with major medical, psychiatric, socioeconomic & legal consequences. Various neuronal mechanisms implicated in methamphetamine dependence have been suggested. Drugs of abuse are of two types: natural drugs and synthetic psychotropic substances. The former includes opium, cocaine and cannabis. The latter includes pethidine, barbiturates, tranquillizers, amphetamines. There has been increasing incidence of addiction to certain drugs amongst young people in our country. Our patient is a student of private university of 24 year old male with a history of YABA addiction for 4 years. Without having it he can't do anything. If he cannot take it, peevish temperament occurs. He collects drugs from the local spots or particular person. This condition is very much dangerous to the individual and socio-economic condition of country.

Serum and Erythrocyte Magnesium levels in Offsprings of Essential Hypertensive Parents.

Hypertension is an important public health challenge worldwide, 95% of which are primary or essential hypertension, where the exact causes are not known. It has been thought that magnesium level has an association with hypertension and plays role in the pathogenesis of essential hypertension. Several evidences suggested that decreased magnesium level may be a significant modifiable risk factor for developing essential hypertension. To explore the relationship between serum and erythrocyte magnesium level with blood pressure, this case control study was carried out in the Department of Biochemistry, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU), during the year 2006. Thirty offsprings of essential hypertensive parents were taken as cases and 30 age and sex-matched offsprings of normotensive parents were taken as controls. Serum & erythrocyte magnesium were measured by colorimetric Calmagite method. Significantly lower serum magnesium level (mg/dl) was found in cases than that of controls (1.90±0.210 vs 2.13±0.366, p<0.01) and erythrocyte magnesium (mg/dl) was also found to be lower in cases when compared with that of controls (4.46±0.699 vs 5.43±0.775, p<0.001). Mean systolic and diastolic blood pressure were found to be significantly higher (p<0.01) in cases as compared to controls. Though it is difficult to draw any definite conclusion, it may be assumed that, a hereditary predisposition to hypertension may be related to magnesium metabolism and magnesium deficiency might have a role in the future development of hypertension in the offsprings of essential hypertensive parents.

Depression in deliberate self harm patients.

One hundred consecutively admitted deliberate self-harm patients were studied. By using DSM III-R criteria for Major Depressive Episode (MDE) 38 were found to have major depressive disorder. Among them 27 were severe, 9 were moderate and only 2 were mild according to HRSD score which were entirely consistent with severity grading recorded by DSM III-R. Another 48 showed evidence of depressive symptoms which may be due to extreme subjective distress. All the depressed self-harm patients had depressed mood and almost all of them expressive somatization. Only 5 depressed self-harm patients were getting psychiatric treatment which indicate lack of awareness about the existence of depression among deliberate self-harm patients and poor referral service in the hospitals.

Pattern of depressive disorder among the permanent sterilized women.

A prospective study was done on 100 permanent sterilized women (age 21 to 40 years) attending two model family planning clinics of Dhaka. By using DSM III-R criteria for major depressive episode, 19 were found to have depressive disorder. Among them 3 were severe, 8 were moderate and rest 8 were mild according to HRSD score. The average number of children in postligated depressive group was 5 in number. Almost all the depressives had considerable life events one year before ligation and relationship problem was the most frequent event. The time of occurrence of depressive disorder was within 2-3 months after ligation in 42.11% of the depressives. Only 2 cases of the depressives were getting psychiatric treatment which indicates lack of awareness about the existence of depression among postligated women.