DESIGN AND METHODS: Four PPSs, including headache, chest pain, low back pain, and muscle pain, and subjective depressive symptoms were assessed using the Symptom Checklist-90-Revised.
FINDINGS: Out of 528 participants, 390 (73.9%) had at least one PPS. After adjusting for sex, depression severity, disability, fatigue, physical health status, and mental health status, PPSs were found to be associated with crying easily, blaming oneself, feeling lonely, feeling blue, and worrying too much.
PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS: Almost three-quarters of Asian patients with MDD experience PPSs. PPSs are associated with some subjective feelings of depression.
RECENT FINDINGS: Except Japan, all the other countries have a very low number of psychiatrists per 100 000 population - far lower than the global target of 10 psychiatrist per 100 000 population. The undergraduate teaching in psychiatry in majority of the countries is restricted to 20 h of lectures given during the 4-6 semester and 2-3 weeks of clinical ward placements. The duration as well as the overall quality of postgraduate training and methods of assessment and accreditation varies widely across and within countries.
SUMMARY: Numerous gaps that need to be addressed to enhance the quality of psychiatrists trained in Asia were identified. There is a need to have uniform minimum standards of training and mechanisms of mutual support, for not only training but also academics and research activities in Asia.
METHODS: Using data from the Research on Asian Psychotropic Prescription Patterns for Antidepressants (REAP-AD), the network of the ICD-10 diagnostic criteria for depressive episode was estimated from 1174 Asian patients with depressive disorders. The node strength centrality of all ICD-10 diagnostic criteria for a depressive episode was estimated using a community-detection algorithm. In addition, networks of depressive symptoms were estimated separately among East Asian patients and South or Southeast Asian patients. Moreover, networks were estimated separately among Asian patients from high-income countries and those from middle-income countries.
RESULTS: Persistent sadness, fatigue, and loss of interest were the most centrally situated within the network of depressive symptoms in Asian patients with depressive disorders overall. A community-detection algorithm estimated that when excluding psychomotor disturbance as an outlier, the other nine symptoms formed the largest clinically meaningful cluster. Geographic and economic variations in networks of depressive symptoms were evaluated.
CONCLUSION: Our findings demonstrated that the typical symptoms of the ICD-10 diagnostic criteria for depressive episode are the most centrally situated within the network of depressive symptoms. Furthermore, our findings suggested that cultural influences related to geographic and economic distributions of participants could influence the estimated depressive symptom network in Asian patients with depressive disorders.
METHODS: Demographic and clinical information of 955 older adults were extracted from the database of the Research on Asian Psychotropic Prescription Patterns for Antidepressants (REAP-AD) project. Standardized data collection procedure was used to record demographic and clinical data.
RESULTS: Proportion of physical comorbidities in this cohort was 44%. Multiple logistic regression analyses showed that older age (OR = 1.7, P