ABSTRACT
Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic has left an array of direct physical consequences unevenly on the elderly apart from leaving a wide range of indirect consequences of mental health problems on them. This study aims to understand the effect of a Yoga-Meditation based mobile phone application intervention to reduce the duress by mental health issues via a qualitative analysis. Methods: A phenomenological qualitative succession of an explanatory sequential design of a prior quantitative study followed by a Yoga-Meditation mobile phone based intervention, where 30 participants who had mild or moderate Depression, Anxiety or Stress as assessed by DASS-21 were chosen by random sampling and were asked to take part in an interview. The interview was transcribed, coded, patterns identified and themes were created to understand the perceptions. Results: Three major schools of thought were identified and explored to understand the general perception of Mental health, COVID-19 and the intervention: a) Knowledge Axis patterns of COVID-19, which included their prior knowledge about the disease, its consequences and their cues to action based on those beliefs, b) Mental Health and Strategies to Positivity, involves all their actions to promote, restore or propagate a positive mental attitude from religious activities to physical activities and c) Application related thoughts, involved their perceptions of the app, the barriers to use and suggestions to improve. Conclusion: This study gave deeper insight into the schools of thought which will be important in designing future interventions and yoga-meditation based programs in the future, essentially for geriatric populations as it serves as a feasible simple measure for the same.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Engagement into treatment is crucial for improving outcomes among patients with substance use disorders. This study aimed to find the rates and characteristics of treatment noncompletion in patients who were admitted to a drug dependence treatment center in north India. METHODS: This retrospective record review analyzed data from consecutive patients admitted between January 1, 2014, and December 31, 2014, at the National Drug Dependence Treatment Centre, Ghaziabad, India. The type of discharge was discerned from the records, along with selected demographic and clinical characteristics of the patient. RESULTS: A total of 942 in-patients were included in the analysis, 936 (99.4%) of whom were males. The mean duration of ward stay was 12.7 (±8.1) days. Of the 942 patients, 779 (82.7%) completed the inpatient treatment while 163 (17.3%) did not complete (n = 95, 10.1% were discharged against medical advice; n = 44, 4.7% were discharged on disciplinary grounds and n = 24, 2.5% absconded or left without intimation). The inpatient treatment noncompleters had a shorter duration of ward stay (8.3 ± 6.9 days vs. 13.6 ± 8.0 days, P < 0.001), were of a greater average age (33.1 ± 10.0 years vs. 30.5 ± 9.4 years, P = 0.002), were more likely to be dependent on opioids (71.2% vs. 59.1%, P = 0.004) and less likely to be dependent on alcohol (30.1% vs. 42.9%, P = 0.002) than treatment completers. CONCLUSION: Understanding the characteristics of patients with substance use disorders who do not complete inpatient treatment may help in identifying those at-risk of having poor outcomes. Efforts are required to address their concerns so that the overall patient outcomes can be improved.
