Depression among inmates in a regional prison of eastern Nepal: a cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND: Depression is the most common form of mental disorder among inmates, with a prevalence much higher than in the general population. This study aims to estimate the prevalence of depression among inmates and identify factors associated with it. METHODS: This cross-sectional study was conducted in Jhumka Regional Prison, the largest prison in eastern Nepal, from September 2014 to August 2015. A total of 434 randomly selected inmates were interviewed using a semi-structured questionnaire examining socio-demographic characteristics, detention status, self-reported health problems, substance use status, and suicidal ideation. Depression was screened using the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression scale. Chi-square tests and multiple logistic regression analysis were applied to determine the association between depression and related variables. RESULTS: The mean age of the participants was 35.7 years (SD 13.3). The prevalence of depression among the inmates was 35.3%. Approximately 2.3% reported suicidal ideation during imprisonment and 0.9% had attempted suicide inside the prison. In bivariate analysis, depression was significantly associated with previous incarceration (OR = 1.91, 95% CI = 1.05-3.47, p = 0.033), poor self-rated health (OR = 1.75, 95% CI = 1.16-2.64, p = 0.007), frequent appointments when encountering health problems (OR = 1.66, 95% CI = 1.06-2.61, p = 0.028), suicidal ideation (OR = 4.44, 95%CI = 1.13-17.44, p = 0.038) and loss of weight (OR = 1.49, 95% CI = 1.00-2.23, p = 0.049). However, only previous incarceration (AOR = 1.97, 95% CI = 1.04-3.74, p = 0.037) and frequent appointments when encountering health problems (AOR = 1.61, 95% CI = 1.01-2.57, p = 0.046) remained significant in a multivariate model. CONCLUSIONS: This study showed a high rate of depression among inmates in Nepal. The results suggest a need for psychiatric and rehabilitative care in correctional settings to improve the health status of the inmates.

Segawa Syndrome, a Dramatic Response to Dopamine.

Segawa syndrome usually manifests as dystonia, disturbance of gait with fatigue, and may be confused with spasticity. Also known as dopamine-responsive dystonia (DRD), it should be considered in any child who presents with paroxysmal or progressive hypertonia of unknown etiology, which responds dramatically to levodopa. It is a clinical diagnosis, but the level of pterins in cerebrospinal fluid and guanosine triphosphate cyclohydrolase-1 (GTCH 1) gene mutation testing done by molecular genetic testing are confirmatory. Our case is a 45-year female with a family history of similar illness expressed as autosomal recessive inheritance pattern. She had symptoms onset at an early age of 13 years with features of dystonia of predominantly lower limbs, hence the inability to maintain posture and walk. Dramatic improvement with levodopa but sudden deterioration to dystonia due to noncompliance was evident in our patient with troublesome features of concomitant adjustment disorder during presentation.

Family caregiver experience of caring COVID-19 patients admitted in COVID-19 hospital of a tertiary care hospital in Nepal.

BACKGROUND: Informal caregivers played a significant role in caring for COVID-19 patients during hospitalization in Nepal. This study aimed to understand the experiences of family caregivers attending to their relatives in a COVID-19 hospital in Nepal. METHODS: A descriptive phenomenological approach was adopted to understand the caregiver's experience in supporting their relatives admitted to the COVID-19 hospital of the BP Koirala Institute of Health Sciences (BPKIHS). Thirteen caregivers of COVID-19 positive patients were purposively selected from April to June, 2022. Face-to-face interviews were conducted at a caregiver residential facility using the interview schedule developed by the department for the purpose of data collection after obtaining ethical clearance from the Institutional review committee of BPKIHS. Data were audio recorded and manually analyzed. RESULTS: Among the 13 caregivers, six were male and seven were female. The findings were categorized into five domains: challenges encountered, changes in physical and mental health, changes in roles and responsibilities, positive experiences, and strategies to ease caregiving tasks. Major challenges included financial burdens, communication problems, stigmatization, Insecurity, substandard accommodation, and visitor restrictions. Caregivers reported negative emotions, unmet physical health needs, and shifts in family and occupational roles. Despite these challenges, caregivers attempted to cope positively and acknowledged the efforts of healthcare personnel and other family members. Suggestions for improving caregiving included providing essential medical and basic services within the hospital, enhancing accommodation facilities, establishing proper communication channels, and allowing visitations. CONCLUSIONS: Caregivers of COVID-19 patients face significant challenges during the caregiving process. Enhancing hospital services, promoting effective communication, fostering positive attitudes, and ensuring a safe environment can facilitate caregiving tasks.

Development and Use of Suicide Registry for Recording Patient Profile with Self-harm Visiting Tertiary Hospital of Nepal: A Descriptive Cross-sectional Study.

INTRODUCTION: Suicide is a major public health concern globally as well as in Nepal. It is important to have baseline data regarding suicide attempts to develop a prevention strategy. This study aims to describe the methodology used to develop a suicide registry and use it to collect data from patient visiting emergency or psychiatric outpatient department with suicide attempts in a tertiary care hospital. METHODS: This is a descriptive cross-sectional study conducted retrospectively after obtaining ethical approval (Reference number: drs2005211371) from institutional review committee. Total sampling was done from the database covering the period from October 1, 2017, to September 30, 2023. The database was in the form of suicide registry that was developed after reviewing the existing data of primary health care centres, private hospitals, and tertiary care centers and a series of discussions among mental health experts. Data was entered in Microsoft Excel and analysis was done. RESULTS: Among the 248 patients, there were 109 (43.95%) male and 139 (56.05%) female. There were 209 (84.27%) patients who attempted suicide inside home, poisoning was seen in 90 (36.29%) and 183 (73.79%) had impulsive intention. Out of total patients, 59 (23.79%) had prior communication and 84 (33.87%) had previous attempts, 109 (43.95%) patients had impulsive attempts as diagnosis and 75 (30.24%) had depression. CONCLUSIONS: As per the suicide registry, most of the patients attempted suicide inside home and the most common method used was ingestion of poison.

Delirious Mania in an Elderly, Challenges in Diagnosis and Treatment.

Delirious mania is an acute neurobehavioral syndrome which can have the features of mania, delirium, psychosis and catatonia. There are no diagnostic and treatment guidelines of delirious mania which can lead to delayed treatment, increasing morbidity and mortality. The primary goal of this report is to raise awareness among healthcare professionals and improve patient outcomes for this potentially life-threatening condition. In this case report, we present an octogenarian female, a case of bipolar disorder, current episode manic, who had impaired orientation, delusion of persecution, and altered sleep-wake cycle. She was treated with a combination of mood stabilizer and antipsychotic and discharged after 24 days of admission.

Health and socioeconomic resource provision for older people in South Asian countries: Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka evidence from NEESAMA.

BACKGROUND: The global population is ageing rapidly, with low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) undergoing a fast demographic transition. As the number of older adults in LMICs increases, services able to effectively address their physical and mental health needs will be increasingly important. OBJECTIVE: We review the health and socioeconomic resources currently available for older people in South Asian countries, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, to identify gaps in available resources and assess areas for improvement. METHODS: We conducted a search of grey and published literature via Google Search, Compendex, EBSCO, JSTOR, Medline, Ovid, ProQuest databases, Scopus and Web of Science. Data on population demographics, human resources, health funding and social protection for older people were extracted. Local informants were consulted to supplement and verify the data. RESULTS: In the study countries, the number of health professionals with expertise in elderly care was largely unknown, with minimal postgraduate training programmes available in elderly medicine or psychiatry. Older adults are therefore cared for by general physicians, nurses and community health workers, all of whom are present in insufficient numbers per capita. Total average healthcare expenditure was 2.5-5.5% of GDP, with 48.1-72.0% of healthcare costs covered by out-of-pocket payments. Pakistan did not have a social pension; only India and Nepal offered financial assistance to people with dementia; and all countries had disproportionately low numbers of care elderly homes. CONCLUSIONS: Inadequate healthcare funding, a shortage of healthcare professionals and insufficient government pension and social security schemes are significant barriers to achieving universal health coverage in LMICs. Governing bodies must expand training programmes for healthcare providers for older adults, alongside increasing social protection to improve access to those in need and to prevent catastrophic health expenditure.

Depression among Armed Police Force Soldiers Serving in a Police Headquarter: A Descriptive Cross-sectional Study.

Introduction: Depression is a common mental health problem among soldiers worldwide. Depression decreases the efficiency and productivity of the soldiers. The objective of this research is to find out the prevalence of depression among armed police force soldiers serving in a police headquarter. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was done on a total of 314 soldiers serving in the eastern regional armed police force headquarters of Nepal from January 15, 2017 to June 14, 2017 after receiving ethical clearance was taken from the Institutional Review Committee (Reference number: 140/073/074-IRC). Convenience sampling was done. Beck Depression Inventory was used to assess the prevalence of depression. Data were collected and entered in the Statistical Package for the Social Science version 15.0. which was used for data analysis. Point estimate at 95% Confidence Interval was calculated along with frequency and percentage for binary data. Results: Among 314 soldiers, 133 (42.36%) (36.89-47.83 at a 95% Confidence Interval) soldiers had depression where, 47 (14.97%) had mild mood disturbance, 33 (10.51%) had borderline depression, 40 (12.74%) had moderate depression, 10 (3.18%) had severe depression and 3 (0.96%) had extreme depression. Conclusions: The prevalence of depression in our study was lower when compared to other studies conducted in similar settings. Keywords: armed forces personnel; depression; depressive symptoms; soldiers.

Length of Stay of Psychiatric Admissions in a Tertiary Care Hospital.

INTRODUCTION: The length of stay among psychiatric in-patients is usually longer than that of others. In-patient management is costly and longer length of stay can lead to catastrophic costs. We conducted this study to explore about the length of stay of psychiatric admissions and factors affecting it. METHODS: We collected the data of all the patients admitted to the psychiatric ward of B. P. Koirala Institute of Health Sciences from 1st January 2007 to 31st December 2016 from the database of the medical records section after ethical approval. The sociodemographic and clinical variables were analyzed using SPSS 20.0 version. Length of stay more than 3 weeks was considered as long stay. Bivariate and multivariable logistic regression analyses were conducted to identify factors associated with length of stay. RESULTS: There were 3687 admissions during the study period. The average length of stay was 19.36 (±13.14) days. On logistic regression, the factors associated with shorter length of stay were: male gender (aOR= 0.79, 95%CI: 0.68-0.93), being self employed (aOR= 0.17, 95%CI: 0.12-0.22), homemakers (aOR= 0.18, 95%CI: 0.14-0.24), farmers (aOR= 0.20, 95%CI: 0.15-0.27) and students (aOR= 0.23, 95%CI:0.17-0.32). Similarly, factors associated with longer length of stay were: being from other Eastern Terai districts(aOR=1.37, 95%CI: 1.11-1.70), other Eastern Hill districts (aOR= 1.68; 95%CI: 1.29-2.20), diagnosis of schizophrenia and related disorders (aOR=4.01, 95%CI: 1.34-12.0), having medical co-morbidity (aOR= 3.47; 95%CI: 2.49-4.84) and being readmitted (aOR= 1.23, 95%CI: 1.03-1.47). CONCLUSIONS: There was significant association of length of stay with gender, age, address, occupation, diagnosis and readmission.

Gender Differences in the Prevalence of Depression among the Working Population of Nepal.

OBJECTIVE: To estimate the prevalence of depression in the working population; to examine if any gender disparity prevails; and to determine the sociodemographic mediators of depression. METHODS: Data from previous research was retrieved for this study. Only paid workers were selected (n=160). Sociodemographic variables including prevalence of moderate depression were compared between the genders using Chi square test. Significant variables were subject to logistic regression. Validated Nepali version of the Beck Depression Inventory scale (BDI-Ia) was used to determine depressive symptoms with a cutoff score of ≥20 considered as moderate depression. RESULT: The overall prevalence of moderate depression was 15%, with higher prevalence among working women compared to men [χ 2 (df) = 6.7(1), P=0.01], those practicing religions other than Hinduism [χ 2 (df) = 5.5(1), P=0.01], those educated up to primary school compared to other education criteria [χ 2 (df) = 9.4(4), P=0.03], those having vitamin D deficiency compared to others [χ 2 (df) = 8.5(3), P=0.03], and sedentary lifestyle compared to active lifestyle [χ 2 (df) = 6.7(1), P=0.009]. The OR (95% CI) for moderate depression was significantly higher in women than in men [3.2 (1.1-9.6), P= 0.03] and sedentary lifestyle [2.9(1.1-8.2), P= 0.04] even after adjusting for confounding variables. CONCLUSION: Working women have increased odds of depression compared to men. Among various characteristics, sedentary lifestyle was the most important causative factor for depression among women.

Health needs and risky behaviours among inmates in the largest prison of eastern Nepal.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this paper is to assess the health status and risky behaviours of inmates in Nepal. DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH: This cross-sectional study was conducted in Jhumka Regional Prison, the largest male prison in eastern Nepal from September 2014 to August 2015. Data were collected through face-to-face interviews from 434 randomly selected incarcerated participants using semi-structured questionnaires. FINDINGS: The mean age of 434 participants was 35.7 years (SD 13.3). The majority (84 per cent) had at least one current health problem, of which the commonest were respiratory (50 per cent), skin (38 per cent) and digestive (26 per cent). Alcohol (73 per cent) and cigarettes (71 per cent) were the most commonly used substances prior to imprisonment. Approximately, 27 and 11 per cent reported illicit drug use and injectable drug use prior to incarceration, respectively. A total of 204 inmates reported having intercourse with sex workers. Of these, 49 per cent did not use a condom in their last intercourse with a sex worker. RESEARCH LIMITATIONS/IMPLICATIONS: This paper illustrates that a wide range of physical and mental health problems exist among incarcerated people in Nepal. The study may lack generalisability, however, as it was conducted in a single male prison. PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS: The paper suggests a need for medical, psychiatric and substance abuse care in correctional settings to improve the health status of the prison population. It is also important to develop screening policies for blood-borne viral and other infectious diseases in the prison. ORIGINALITY/VALUE: This is the first study of its kind drawn from prisons in Nepal.

Association between vitamin D deficiency and depression in Nepalese population.

Recent studies link vitamin D deficiency with depression; however evidences from the Nepalese population are scarce. The current study explored the association between vitamin D deficiency and depression among 300 adults of 18 years and above age residing in eastern Nepal. Validated Nepali version of the Beck Depression Inventory scale (BDI-Ia) was used to determine depressive symptoms and a BDI cutoff score of ≥20 was considered as clinically significant depression. Sociodemographic data were collected using semi-structured questionnaire. Blood samples were collected to measure serum 25­hydroxy vitamin D (25(OH)D) and classify vitamin D status (deficient, insufficient and sufficient). We used Chi-square test to identify the association of sociodemographic variables and vitamin D status with clinically significant depression. We found a significant association of gender, geographical location of residence, marital status, religion and vitamin D status with clinically significant depression. Binary logistic regression model was used to examine the likelihood of clinically significant depression among vitamin D deficient individuals. Vitamin D deficiency was significantly associated with increased odds of clinically significant depression even after adjusting for confounding variables. This finding suggests Vitamin D deficient people have increased odds of having clinically significant depression.

Inhalant induced mania: An unexplored entity.

Inhalant abuse is one of the common presentations in de-addiction clinic among children and adolescent age group. Psychiatric morbidity is high among inhalant users but there is very little evidence to consider it a direct result of it. We present a case of 17-year-old boy with symptoms of mania which had time event correlation with inhalant use. He was successfully treated with antipsychotic medications and is maintaining well. The case highlights the need of strong suspicion of inhalant abuse in young patients who present with acute onset of psychiatric symptoms.

Psychiatric Comorbidities in Patients with Deliberate Self-Harm in a Tertiary Care Center.

INTRODUCTION: Deliberate self-harm (DSH) is one of the common psychiatric emergencies in medical practice. It has become a global health problem with rates increasing over time. Very few studies have been conducted on this important health issue in Nepal. We conducted a hospital based study to evaluate the cause, mode and psychiatric comorbidities present in patients of DSH. METHODS: This cross sectional study was performed on 200 cases of deliberate self-harm in a tertiary referral centre in Eastern Nepal from April 2012 to July 2012 by the data collected from the medical records of these patients. Various sociodemographic data and psychiatric comorbidities prevalent in them were studied. RESULTS: Most of the patients (77%) were below the age of 35. The female-to-male ratio was 1.35:1. 76% of the patients had received formal education. Majority (73.5%) were married. By occupation, 38% were housewives and 25.5% were students. 72.5% of cases had consumed organophosphates/-chlorides. Interpersonal conflict (72%) was the major cause for DSH. Psychiatric disorders according to ICD-10 criteria were found in 37% of cases and premorbid personality problems were found in 20% of cases. The most prevalent psychiatric disorder was adjustment disorder (13.5%) followed by mood disorder (11%). CONCLUSION: Majority of DSH cases were of younger generation. Psychiatric disorders and comorbid personality problems were commonly seen in DSH patients. This has significance for proper evaluation and management.

Dementia assessment and management protocol for doctors in Nepal.

WHO Dementia Report published in 2012 highlighted the exponential rise of dementia in the elderly population worldwide, especially in low-and middle-income countries. There may be over 135,000 people with dementia in Nepal, but there are no formal arrangements for diagnosis and treatment or any care and support for their caregivers. WHO developed the Mental Health Gap Action Programme (mhGAP) Intervention Guide in 2010, for mental, neurological and substance use, including dementia in non-specialist health settings. This paper reviews the current dementia care provisions in Nepal and proposes a mhGAP-based dementia assessment and management protocol for Nepalese doctors in hospital/clinic settings. The protocol also outlines a post-diagnostic advice for dementia caregivers. The protocol would be discussed at various stakeholders meetings before recommending for routine clinical use.