ABSTRACT
The Ministry of Health (MOH) have updated the clinical practice guidelines on Depression to provide doctors and patients in Singapore with evidence-based treatment for depression. This article reproduces the introduction and executive summary (with recommendations from the guidelines) from the MOH clinical practice guidelines on Depression, for the information of readers of the Singapore Medical Journal. Chapters and page numbers mentioned in the reproduced extract refer to the full text of the guidelines, which are available from the Ministry of Health website: http://www.moh.gov.sg/content/moh_web/home/Publications/guidelines/cpg/2012/depression.html. The recommendations should be used with reference to the full text of the guidelines. Following this article are multiple choice questions based on the full text of the guidelines.
Subject(s)
Depression/therapy , Adolescent , Adult , Aged , Antidepressive Agents/therapeutic use , Child , Depression/diagnosis , Depression/drug therapy , Humans , PsychotherapyABSTRACT
The Ministry of Health (MOH) has updated the clinical practice guidelines on Schizophrenia to provide doctors and patients in Singapore with evidence-based treatment for schizophrenia. This article reproduces the introduction and executive summary (with recommendations from the guidelines) from the MOH clinical practice guidelines on Schizophrenia, for the information of readers of the Singapore Medical Journal. Chapters and page numbers mentioned in the reproduced extract refer to the full text of the guidelines, which are available from the Ministry of Health website: http://www.moh.gov. sg/mohcorp/publications.aspx?id=26138. The recommendations should be used with reference to the full text of the guidelines. Following this article are multiple choice questions based on the full text of the guidelines.
Subject(s)
Antipsychotic Agents/therapeutic use , Psychotherapy/methods , Schizophrenia/therapy , Evidence-Based Medicine , Humans , Practice Guidelines as Topic , Schizophrenia/drug therapy , SingaporeABSTRACT
The aim of this study was to investigate pulmonary function and exercise capacity in a group of survivors of the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). At 3 months after hospital discharge, 46 survivors of SARS underwent the following evaluation: spirometry, static lung volumes and carbon monoxide transfer factor (TL,CO). In total, 44 of these patients underwent cardiopulmonary exercise testing. No abnormalities were detected in the pulmonary function tests in 23 (50%) of the patients. Abnormalities of forced vital capacity (FVC), forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1), FEV1/FVC and TL,CO were detected in seven (15%), 12 (26%), one (2%) and 18 (39%) patients, respectively. All of these abnormalities were mild except in one case. In 18 patients (41%), the maximum aerobic capacity was below the lower limit of the normal range. Breathing reserve was low in four patients and significant oxygen desaturation was detected in a further four patients. Comparison of the measured exercise capacity with resting pulmonary function tests showed many cases of discordance in impairment. In conclusion, pulmonary function defects were detected in half of the recovered severe acute respiratory syndrome patients 3 months after hospital discharge, but the impairment was mild in almost all cases. Many patients had reduced exercise capacity that cannot be accounted for by impairment of pulmonary function.