ABSTRACT
@#Introduction: Chronic pain remains a public health issue as patients endure this condition while it affects the patients’ life either physically or mentally. Evidence has demonstrated that depression coexist with chronic pain; yet depression is often insufficiently acknowledged, indirectly causing this mental health problem to be undertreated. In this paper we aim to determine the local prevalence of depression among patients with chronic pain in a tertiary hospital in Sabah, East Malaysia. Methods: This is a retrospective cross-sectional study. Past patient consultation records of adult patients who attended a tertiary pain clinic in Sabah for the first time are included. Socio-demographic data were collected, as well as scores from painDetect Questionnaire (PD-Q) and 9-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9). Results: From the 222 individual data collected, more than half (64.9%) were female. 79 (35.6%) were between the age of 18 to 40. The types of pain presented were almost equally distributed between nociceptive pain (38.3%), mixed pain (33.3%) and neuropathic pain (28.4%). Prevalence of depression among chronic pain patients was 15%. Patients with neuropathic pain are significantly associated with signs of depression (p<0.001). Female patients are significantly more prone to depression as compared to male (p = 0.024). Conclusion: The high prevalence of depression among chronic pain patients warrants the attention of physicians. Physicians should be vigilant and actively screen for depression in patients with chronic pain.
ABSTRACT
BackgroundThe emergence of COVID-19 as a pandemic has resulted in the need for urgent development of vaccines and drugs and the conduction of clinical trials to fight the outbreak. Because of the time constraints associated with the development of vaccines and effective drugs, drug repurposing and other alternative treatment methods have been used to treat patients that have been infected by the SARS-CoV-2 virus and have acquired COVID-19. ObjectiveThe objective of this systematic scoping review is to provide an overview of the molecular mechanism of action of repurposed drugs or alternative treatment medicines used to attenuate COVID-19 disease. Data SourcesThe research articles or grey literature, including theses, government reports, and official news online, were identified from 4 databases and 1 search engine. The full content of a total of 160 articles that fulfilled our inclusion criteria was analyzed and information about 6 drugs (ritonavir, lopinavir, oseltamivir, remdesivir, favipiravir, and chloroquine) and 4 traditional Chinese medicines (Shuang Huang Lian Kou Fu Ye, TCM combination of Bu Huan Jin Zheng Qi San and Da Yuan Yin, Xue Bi Jing Injection and Qing Fei Pai Du Tang) were extracted. ConclusionsAll of the repurposed drugs that have been used for the treatment of COVID-19 depend on the ability of the drug to inhibit the proliferation of the SARS-CoV-2 virus by binding to enzyme active sites, viral chain termination, or triggering of the molecular pathway, whereas traditional Chinese medicine has a pivotal role in triggering the inflammation pathway, such as the neuraminidase blocker, to fight the SARS-CoV-2 virus. This review provides an insight to experimental validation of drugs and alternative medicine used for the treatment and control of COVID-19.
