Obesity Indicators and Health-related Quality of Life - Insights from a Cohort of Morbidly Obese, Middle-aged South Indian Women.

OBJECTIVE: The global prevalence of obesity is increasing and has nearly doubled in the last decade, disproportionately impacting less-developed countries. The aim of this cross-sectional study was to analyse health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in morbidly obese women attending a bariatric clinic in India, and assess potential obesity indicators that can be utilised in under-resourced settings, to better understand HRQOL of individual patients. METHODS: Anthropometric measurements were collected, including waist circumference, hip circumference, waist-hip ratio, waist-height ratio and body mass index (BMI). HRQOL was assessed using an obesity-related quality-of-life questionnaire focused on the impact of obesity on physical distress, self-esteem, sexual life and work life. RESULTS: The average BMI of study participants was 39.6 kg/m2, with an average HRQOL of 40.2%. The strongest correlation was noted between BMI and HRQOL (R2=0.16). Exploratory analyses demonstrated that patients with higher BMI quartiles had lower scores for physical impact and psychosocial impact, and higher scores for sexual health, comfort with food, and experience with dieting compared to patients in lower quartiles. CONCLUSION: In South Indian, middle-aged, morbidly obese women, HRQOL is lower than average and is highly correlated with BMI, with different BMI levels having higher impacts in different subcategories, supporting the need for an individualised therapeutic focus for each patient.

Silent colonic perforation and enterocutaneous fistula by a ball point pen 13 years after ingestion in a patient with schizophrenia.

Patients with mental illness do not get medical and surgical attention as required. Here is a case of poor, unemployed gentleman with an ulcer which was carefully evaluated and treated appropriately. The presentation is novel in many other ways. The object of size 6 × 2.5 cm usually does not cross the duodenum, but in his case an 11-cm long pen had reached the splenic flexure. It also had stayed dormant for over 13 years before causing complications. When the pen perforated the bowel, the patient is expected to present with acute abdomen, but in this case it presented as enterocutaneus fistula. This case is first of its kind in medical literature.

Psychiatric Burden in the Morbidly Obese in Multidisciplinary Bariatric Clinic in South India.

BACKGROUND: Obesity is a global epidemic. Bariatric surgery is being considered as the treatment of choice in morbid obesity. Psychiatric comorbidity affects outcomes in this population. There is a dearth of data on psychiatric profile of the morbidly obese from Indian subcontinent. We studied people with morbid obesity to estimate the psychiatric burden among them and to identify factors associated for developing psychiatric disorders. METHODOLOGY: This is a cross-sectional study done in a bariatric clinic of a tertiary care teaching hospital in South India. Sixty morbidly obese patients were evaluated by psychiatrists and data from medical records were collected and analyzed. Prevalence of psychiatric disorders was estimated. They were compared with patients without psychiatric disorders using appropriate statistical tests. RESULTS: Nearly 33.33% of the patients had a psychiatric disorder. Depression and dysthymia accounted for about half of those cases. The variables that were associated with psychiatric disorders were current suicidal ideation, past self-injurious behavior, perceived poor social support, and past psychiatric history. CONCLUSION: One-third of the morbidly obese patients having psychiatric disorder is suggestive of high comorbidity. Considering this active involvement of psychiatrists in bariatric clinic would be useful.

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder Presenting with Compulsions to Urinate Frequently.

Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) is a common psychiatric disorder which is easily recognized. However, sometimes patients of OCD present in such an atypical presentation of symptoms and a pathway to care involving multiple specialities. We report a case of a girl who had consulted several physicians and a urologist for frequent micturition, who was treated as a case of OCD after clarifying the compulsive nature of her symptom. There was significant improvement in her condition following 8 weeks of treatment with 200 mg of Sertraline and behaviour therapy.