Prevalence of alexithymia among medical students in Nepal: A cross-sectional study based on a self-administered questionnaire.

Background and Aims: Alexithymia is a state in which one cannot comprehend and put their emotions or feelings into words. It is a disturbance that is common among general population as well as people with mental health disorders. Medical students are at higher risk of developing alexithymia due to the extensive nature of their course and clinical postings. The presence of alexithymia is negatively correlated with the self-efficacy of the students eventually affecting self-care and patient care in the future. The aim of this study is to find the prevalence of alexithymia among medical students in Nepal and know its associated factors. Methods: This cross-sectional study used convenient sampling for selecting responders and the TAS-20 tool for data collection. Data were analyzed by using SPSS 20. Frequency was calculated for all the variables. Prevalence with 95% confidence interval [CI] is reported and the χ 2 test is used to see the difference in alexithymia status among different categories of dichotomous independent variables. Results: Out of 386 students, 380 of them responded. The ratio of male and female was 1.8 with the mean age of 22.22 ± 1.77 years. The prevalence of alexithymia was found to be 22.89% (95% CI, 18.9-27.1). There was no statistically significant difference between the presence and absence of alexithymia among categories of sex, year of study, staying at hostel, involvement in extracurricular activities, involvement in daily exercise/yoga/outdoor sports, and smoking habit. Conclusion: The prevalence of alexithymia in our study was 22.89% with no association with known factors.

Personality Disorders among Patients with Mental and Behavioral Disorders due to Psychoactive Substance Use in a Tertiary Care Center of Nepal: A Descriptive Cross-sectional Study.

INTRODUCTION: Personality disorders is comprised of deeply ingrained and enduring behavioral patterns, manifesting themselves as inflexible responses to a broad range of personal and social situations." Personality Disorders are frequently occurring among patients with substance use disorders. Co-occurrence of substance use disorders and personality disorder is associated with a greater functional impairment affecting treatment adherence. This study's objective was to find out the prevalence of personality disorders among substance use disorders from the Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health, of a tertiary care center of Nepal. METHODS: A descriptive cross-sectional study was done at the Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health of Shree Birendra Hospital, Chhauni, Kathmandu, Nepal. The ethical approval was approved by the Institutional Review Committee prior to the study. The International Personality Disorder Examination ICD-10 module interview schedule was used to determine personality disorders. There were 100 patients, 86 males and 14 females of age ranging between 18-59 years, from different education levels, socioeconomic statuses, and ethnicities. RESULTS: Of the total 100 patients, 63% of the patients with substance use disorders were found to have either single 24 (24%) or multiple 39 (39%) personality disorders. The most frequently identified disorders were Emotionally Unstable Borderline Type 34 (34%), Anxious Personality Disorder 27 (27%), Emotionally Unstable Impulsive Type 27 (27%). CONCLUSIONS: Present study indicates that personality disorders were highly comorbid with patients of substance use disorders with either single or multiple personality disorders. Personality disorders mostly found in substance use disorders are Emotional Unstable Borderline Type, Anxious Personality Disorder, and Emotional Unstable impulsive Type.

Evaluation of nonmemory cognitive parameters in psychiatric patients' pre- and post-electroconvulsive therapy: An observational study.

INTRODUCTION: Possibility of cognitive side effects has made electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) questionable. Variable deficits have been debated in memory cognition. Pattern of changes in nonmemory cognition pre- and post-ECT is not clear. METHODOLOGY: Forty patients undergoing ECT were studied on nonmemory cognitive parameters before ECT, after a course of ECT, and after 4 weeks of last. ECT. RESULTS: Nonmemory cognition improved during the course of ECT and over 4 weeks of ECT. CONCLUSIONS: ECT does not affect the nonmemory cognition adversely.

The detection of specific biomolecular interactions with micro-Hall magnetic sensors.

The detection of reagent-free specific biomolecular interactions through sensing of nanoscopic magnetic labels provides one of the most promising routes to biosensing with solid-state devices. In particular, Hall sensors based on semiconductor heterostructures have shown exceptional magnetic moment sensitivity over a large dynamic field range suitable for magnetic biosensing using superparamagnetic labels. Here we demonstrate the capability of such micro-Hall sensors to detect specific molecular binding using biotin-streptavidin as a model system. We apply dip-pen nanolithography to selectively biotinylate the active areas of InAs micro-Hall devices with nanoscale precision. Specific binding of complementarily functionalized streptavidin-coated superparamagnetic beads to the Hall crosses occurs via molecular recognition, and magnetic detection of the assembled beads is achieved at room temperature using phase sensitive micro-Hall magnetometry. The experiment constitutes the first unambiguous demonstration of magnetic detection of specific biomolecular interactions with semiconductor micro-Hall sensors, and the selective molecular functionalization and resulting localized bead assembly demonstrate the possibility of multiplexed sensing of multiple target molecules using a single device with an array of micro-Hall sensors.

Selective assembly and alignment of actin filaments with desired polarity on solid substrates.

We report a new strategy to selectively assemble and align filamentous actin (F-actin) onto desired locations on a solid substrate with a specific structural polarity. In this strategy, biotinylated gelsolin caps the structural minus end of F-actin so that the F-actin binds onto a streptavidin pattern with a specific structural polarity. We also demonstrate that an electric field can be utilized to align bound F-actin along a desired direction. This can be one of the major technical breakthroughs toward the assembly of nanomechanical systems based on myosin biomotors.

Highly selective directed assembly of functional actomyosin on Au surfaces.

The capability of assembling biomotors onto specific locations of solid substrates is a key for development of biomotor-based nanomechanical systems. We developed a method to direct the assembly of the heavy meromyosin fragment from rabbit skeletal muscle myosin onto specific locations of Au substrates utilizing surface molecular patterns. In this strategy, chemically directed patterns of streptavidin were achieved to direct highly specific assembly of biotinylated heavy meromyosin on the substrates--a strategy applicable for patterning a variety of biotinylated molecules--while BSA was utilized to avoid nonspecific adsorption. In vitro motility assays of filament sliding were used to confirm functionality of assembled actomyosin.