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.

Psychiatric morbidity in cancer patients.

One hundred and two patients of cancer were studied by two stage screening methods to detect the psychiatric morbidity in these patients. The General Health Questionnaire (60 item version) was used to detect the psychiatric morbidity. The psychiatric diagnosis was made according to DSM-IIIR criteria. Eighty seven patients (85.29%) were found to have psychiatric illness, depression being the commonest illness (45.10%). Anxiety disorder was present among 18.63% and other minor emotional disorders in 21.56%. Fifteen patients (14.71%) were found to be free from any psychiatric symptoms.