Psychosocial responses to disaster: An Asian perspective.

The psychological and psychiatric impact of great natural disasters are beginning to be understood leading to new methods of prevention, intervention and mitigation. There is limited data from the Asian continent, however, which has been the location of some of the greatest disasters of recent times. In this paper, we outline the psychosocial intervention efforts from nine Asian nations when confronted with large-scale natural catastrophic events. These include reports from situations where local services have some capacity to respond as well as those where services are destroyed or overwhelmed. From this it is possible to draw some general principles of psychosocial disaster intervention: (1) Assessment of disaster, extant service systems and incoming resources. (2) Assessment of help-seeking pathways and cultural models of illness. (3) Facilitation and support for family reunion, identification of the dead and cultural and religious practices to address death and grief. (4) Foster and bolster community group activities where possible. (5) Psychosocial training of community, aid and health workers using a train the trainer model to promote case identification, psychoeducation and intervention, with specific emphasis on vulnerable groups, especially children. (6) Promote general community psychoeducation. (7) Train medical and health staff in basic psychiatric and psychological assessment and intervention for post-traumatic stress, mood and anxiety disorders. (8) Minimise risk factors for psychiatric morbidity such as displacement and loss of gainful activity. (9) Reshape mental health systems recognising the long-term psychiatric sequelae of disaster. The collective learnt experience from Asian natural disasters may be constructively used to plan strategies to respond appropriately to the psychosocial consequences of disaster both within Asia and in the rest of the world.

Reliability and validity of the Youth Self-Report, Bangladesh version.

The objectives of this study were to develop the Bangladesh version of the Youth Self-Report (YSR), and assess its reliability and validity in an adolescent population in Dhaka city, Bangladesh. One-hundred-and-eighty-seven boys (mean age: 14.6 years, SD: 2.1) and 137 girls (mean age: 15.2 years, SD: 2.0) from residential areas, and 27 boys (mean age: 17.0, SD: 1.4) and 14 girls (mean age: 15.4, SD: 2.8) from a psychiatric hospital, all within the range of 11-18 years, were interviewed using a questionnaire that consisted of the Bangla translation of the YSR and other questions. Thirty-eight randomly selected adolescents were administered the same questionnaire one week after the first administration. All the core scores and most of the subscales showed high internal consistency other than small item-number subscales, and satisfactory test-retest reliability. Good discriminant validity was shown for most of the scale scores. This study showed that the Bangla translation of the YSR had sufficient reliability and validity for use in Bangladesh. The cutoff scores of the scales were higher for the Bangla version than for the original English version, and further studies exploring this point would be an asset.

Brief report on Ziprasidone.

Ziprasidone is a new antipsychotic with combined dopamine and serotonin receptor antagonist activity. The initial evidence suggests an effective dosage range of 80-160 mg/day. Clinical trials suggest that the drug is an effective antipsychotic in schizophrenia and schizo-affective disorder with a beneficial effect on negative symptoms and symptoms of depression. The main adverse effects appear to be somnolence (14%) and nausea (10%). Ziprasidone has relatively fewer side effects and yet has at least equivalent efficacy for florid 'positive' symptoms compared to conventional anti psychotics. The additional serotonergic actions deliver further efficacy against 'negative' and affective symptoms of schizophrenia. Reduced effects on cognitive abilities compared to conventional anti psychotics make Ziprasidone more attractive.

Writer's cramp--analysis of 15 cases.

This study includes 15 patients of Writer's cramp. All were male and their age ranged from 21 to 57 years. They were from urban areas and of different occupation. They had obsessional pre-morbid personality. The study showed the prognosis of Writer's cramp after 12 weeks of treatment. This study showed that younger age group with early onset and less obsessional feature improved significantly by drug, psychotherapy and behaviour therapy.