Characteristics and correlates of poststroke depression: An Indian study.

BACKGROUND: Post stroke depression adversely affects long term outcome of stroke and increases mortality risk. Few studies have looked into the comprehensive picture of post stroke depression in past. AIM: The current study aimed to look into the phenomenology, characteristic features and various correlates of post stroke depression. METHOD: 142 consecutive stroke patients aged 60 years or above, fulfilling the inclusion criteria were assessed. Sociodemographic and clinical data were gathered using a specially designed pro-forma. Depression, apathy and psychosis were assessed by Post stroke depression rating scale, Apathy Evaluation Scale, and Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale respectively. Groups (with or without major depression) were compared using Mann-Whitney U, chi square or Fisher's exact test. One way ANOVA was conducted to see the relations of lesion location and laterality with various clinical parameters. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis was done to see the time to develop depression. The effect sizes were reported as r and partial eta squared. RESULTS: Guilt was significantly higher (p<.05) with lesions in parietal lobe and remaining of middle cerebral artery territory. Catastrophic reaction (p<.05) and emotional dyscontrol (p<.05) were higher for diffuse lesions, periventricular lesions and lesions in frontal/occipital lobe. BPRS score, but not apathy, had a significant positive correlation with depression (Pearson's r=.692). Mean time to develop depression after stroke was 28.34 (95% CI 22.37 to 34.31) months. CONCLUSIONS: Post stroke depression consists of various clinically important sub-components whose occurrence varies with different lesion locations. Post stroke depression is discriminable from apathy but is related to psychosis.

A unique case of pica of adult onset with interesting psychosexual aspects.

Pica has been considered as the ingestion of inedible substances or atypical food combinations. Pica has been reported widely in pediatric age group and often found to be co existing with obsessive compulsive or major depressive disorder. Reports of pica in elderly age group are relatively uncommon and rarely does it have an adult onset. In this article we present a case of adult onset pica. A young lady with unusual sensation in her abdomen was found to consume iron nails over years and there was history of dyspareunia since her marriage three months back. On query it was known that the lady is having same sex relationship over years. There unique conglomeration of cultural, psychodynamic and physiological determinants which together is responsible for this unusual habit of this lady. Moreover the onset of the disease at a late age and different psychodynamic issues make the case all the more interesting. Whether the pica is an eating disorder or obsessive compulsive disorder is still controversial. Pica has been mentioned in Diagnostic and Statistical Manual IV TR. The present case report warrants the need to look into this entity more closely with regards to its occurrence and etiology.

An outbreak of Koro among 19 workers in a jute mill in south Bengal.

Koro is a culture-bound syndrome that is characterized by the belief of retraction of genitals into the abdomen. It was initially reported in Asian countries, as having a usual acute and brief course. Two case clusters have been described in this article. Both occurred in the same jute mill in southern West Bengal among the workers. The case clusters depict unique socioeconomic factors and interesting health-seeking behavior toward koro. All the cases had a self-limiting course and reasonably good outcome. The case cluster yet again confirms that koro is not as rare as it is thought of and social and economic factors continue to play an important role in the etiology of the disease.

An interesting case of serotonin syndrome precipitated by escitalopram.

Serotonin syndrome is a known entity, which occurs with multiple drugs acting on serotonergic receptors. A 73-year-old lady presented with a history of agitation, altered sensorium, and autonomic hyperactivity after starting escitalopram on therapeutic dosage for her depressive syndrome who was on selegiline for her parkinsonism. This syndrome with therapeutic dose escitalopram warrants the careful and judicious use of the drug especially with other serotonergic drugs, so that this serious medical complication can be avoided.

A case of paroxetine-induced galactorrhoea with normal serum prolactin level.

The following case report highlights an interesting observation of paroxetine-induced galactorrhoea at therapeutic dosage and serum prolactin values of this patient comes out to be normal. This observation merits a systematic study to find the causal relationship of this unusual phenomenon and further explanation.

A case of corpus callosum agenesis presenting with recurrent brief depression.

Agenesis of corpus callosum can have various neuropsychiatric manifestations. Following case report highlights the case of a young man presenting with features of recurrent brief depressive disorder, each lasting for about 3 to 7 days, for over a year. He had history of occasional headache and episodes of swooning attack in between, usually precipitated by emotional events. His neuroimaging revealed agenesis of corpus callosum. He was experiencing swooning attacks as he became aware that some 'unusual' findings were present in his reports. Recurrent brief depression can be a manifestation of this congenital anomaly, and conversion disorder can be present as comorbid diagnosis perhaps due to ignorance and fear of this apparently innocuous congenital malformation.