ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Stresses of medical course affects the academic performance as well as physical and psychological health of the students negatively. In the present day scenario every one of us has vulnerability to have psychiatric morbidity. Like other young adults, undergraduate dental students are similarly vulnerable to turmoil due to academic and social stresses, which often hamper the educational achievement. Early detection and treatment of psychological morbidities shorten the suffering leading to less social impairment in long term. AIM: The aim of this study was to assess the psychiatric morbidity of dental students and the factors affecting their mental health. SETTINGS AND DESIGN: This cross sectional, descriptive and correlation study was conducted in North Bengal Dental College, a rural dental college of West Bengal, India. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study sample consisted of a total of 89 dental students. The student enrollment was done by "simple random sampling method". The semi-structured proforma and the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ)-28 were used to collect data and to assess the psychiatric morbidity. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: Pearson's correlation followed by multivariate linear regression analysis was done to assess the effect of academic achievement, positive and negative event on the GHQ total score. RESULTS: The overall mean GHQ total score in the study population was 5.33, with a SD of 4.85 which was above the cutoff (>4) score. Karl Pearson correlation co-efficient r-values for GHQ total score with 'academic achievement' and 'negative events' score were 0.718 and 0.628 respectively and p-values were 0.001 and 0.001. CONCLUSION: The poor academic performance and negative events had strong impact on psychological morbidity of dental students. The findings of our study can't be generalized for all undergraduate dental student due to small sample size and non inclusion of many other variables.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Psychiatric co-morbidities are frequent among patients attending dental OPD, some of which go unrecognized and hence untreated. AIMS: The present study has been carried out to detect the psychiatric co-morbidities among dental patients and determine the scope of consultation-liaison (C-L) psychiatry in a rural teaching hospital regarding comprehensive management of the patients. SETTINGS AND DESIGN: This cross-sectional, descriptive type study was conducted in a multi-speciality tertiary care teaching hospital in the northern part of West Bengal, India. MATERIALS AND METHODS: One hundred patients attending the dental OPD were randomly included in the study and every patient was consecutively referred to psychiatry department for assessment, during the period from 1(st) November 2013 to 30(th) April 2014. All referred patients were clinically examined and psychiatric co-morbidity was assessed by the help of General Health Questionnaire (GHQ)-28 and Mental Status Examination. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS USED: The data were subjected to statistical package for social sciences (SPSS), version 16, and statistically analyzed using Cross tab and Chi test. P <0.05 was considered to be statistically significant. RESULTS: The commonest dental illness was dental caries (22%). More than two-third of the patients had psychiatric co-morbidity according to GHQ-28 total score. Sixty-eight patients were diagnosed to have mental disorder on mental status examination. Somatoform disorder (25%) was the commonest type of mental disorder, followed by mixed anxiety and depression (14%). CONCLUSIONS: This study has pointed the need for psychological examination of patients visiting dental specialty with unexplained physical symptoms. Such patients can be identified and treated, provided a psychiatric consultation service exists.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Persons suffering from diabetes mellitus (DM) are at higher risk of developing erectile dysfunction (ED). Several factors contribute to ED in patients of DM. Only few studies have attempted to explore physical, psychological and social factors in a single study. The aim of the index study was to measure the prevalence of ED in patients of DM and to determine the contributory role of various socio-demographic, physical, and psychological variables. METHOD: One hundred and thirteen (N = 113) consenting consecutive male married diabetic patients were assessed on International Index of Erectile Function Questionnaire (IIEFQ-5), Dyadic Adjustment Scale (DAS) and Beck's Depression Inventory (BDI) to measure erectile performance, quality of marriage and depressive symptoms respectively. Pretested Bengali versions of these scales were used in the index study. RESULTS: Prevalence of ED was 38.94%. ED group significantly differed from non-ED group in current age, family type, type of treatment for diabetes, presence of micro/macrovascular complications, history of current tobacco use, quality of marriage, and presence of depressive symptoms. In logistic regression analysis current age, body mass index (BMI) and presence of depressive symptoms had significant predictive role on occurrence of erectile dysfunction. CONCLUSION: Prevalence of ED among diabetic patients is high compared to general population. Both physical and psychosocial factors predict the occurrence of ED in this group. So, both physicians and psychiatrists should remain aware about the multi-faceted causative role of ED in DM.
