Effectiveness of assertive community management in Singapore

<p><b>INTRODUCTION</b>Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) was introduced in the 1970s as a comprehensive and assertive approach to community-based case management of patients with chronic and serious mental illness. Launched in Singapore in 2003, the Assertive Community Management (ACM) was modelled after the ACT, but with the main difference of 24 hour availability for the latter only. In line with the move towards de-institutionalisation of psychiatric patients, ACM was introduced to provide a mobile community-based multidisciplinary team approach to manage patients with severe chronic psychiatric illness. This article aims to evaluate and provide an update on this service programme in Singapore following an earlier study by Fam Johnson in 2007.</p><p><b>MATERIALS AND METHODS</b>A naturalistic and retrospective study was conducted. One hundred and fifty-five patients recruited into ACM from 1 September 2008 to 1 September 2009 and had completed 1 year of ACM were included in our study. Outcomes were defined as number of admissions (NOA) and length of stay (LOS) one year before and one year following induction into the programme. Baseline socio-demographic factors were also investigated to see if they predicted outcome with ACM.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The mean NOA was 1.9 pre-ACM and 0.6 post-ACM, with mean reduction in NOA of 1.3 (P <0.01). The mean LOS was 72.2 days pre-ACM and 17.1 days post ACM, mean reduction in LOS 55.1 days (P <0.01). In addition, it was found that gender, diagnoses and ethnicity were not predictive of the outcome measures of NOA or LOS.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>ACM in Singapore had been well established since its inception and continued to show effectiveness in reducing inpatient hospitalisation among the chronically mentally ill.</p>

Determination of three kind of diester diterpenoid alkaloids (DDAs) in Aconitum carmichaeli and its processed products by HPLC / 中国中药杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To establish an HPLC method for the determination of three kind of diester diterpenoid alkaloids (DDAs) in Aconitum carmichaeli and its processed products namely mesaconitine, aconitine and hypaconitine.</p><p><b>METHOD</b>A Zorbax Eclipse XDB C18 column was used, and ammonium acetate solution-acetonitrile as the mobile phase, with a flow rate of 1.0 mL x min(-1) and a detection wavelength of 230 nm.</p><p><b>RESULT</b>Mesaconitine, aconitine and hypaconitine, were separated, and the calibration curves of them were in good linearity over the range of 0.035 7-1.784 microg (r = 0.9999), 0.0126-0.632 microg (r = 0.9997) and 0.0334-1.672 microg (r = 0.9997) respectively.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>This method is simple and accurate. It can be used in the identification and quality control of A. carmichaeli.</p>

Determination of puerarin, daidzin and daidzein in root of Pueraria lobata of different origin by HPLC / 中国中药杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To develop an HPLC method to determine Puerarin, Daidzin and Daidzein in Pueraria lobata.</p><p><b>METHOD</b>The separation was performed in a SYMMETRY C18 column with a mobile phase of methanol-1% HAC solution (gradient elution), the The detection wavelength being 250 nm.</p><p><b>RESULT</b>The average recovery was respectively 101.7%, 100.7% and 101.7% (n = 3), RSD 0.43%, 0.82% and 1.50% (n = 3) for Puerarin, Daidzin and Daidzein.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>This method is suitable for the determination of Puerarin, Daidzin and Daidzein in Pueraria lobata and its preparation.</p>