A 13-year old Malay girl presented with multiple parasuicide attempts. She made multiple attempts at suicide and at the last attempt she developed liver damage. This article discusses the etiology and different methods used to prevent future suicidal attempts in this patient.
Despite time, mobility, knowledge and other constraints, it is still possible for General Practitioners to play an active role in Palliative Care. This article offers various roles where GP can play. Differences between hospice, palliative medicine, palliative care are discussed. Suggestions are made on where to seek formal or informal education on palliative care. Key Words: role, hospice, palliative medicine, palliative care, illness, sickness
Introduction: Depression is an important problem in primary care practice and is the commonest psychiatric disorder among the elderly.
Aim: To assess the prevalence of depression among the elderly patients attending a rural primary health care clinic in Malaysia and to identify its associated factors.
Method: The Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) questionnaire was used as a screening instrument. Patients with positive GDS scores for depression were further assessed for Major Depression.
Results: 14% of the patients were found to have depression. The associated factors identified were gender, marital status, educational level, total family monthly income, living arrangement and if they had someone to confide in. Further clinical evaluation using the DSM IV Criteria for major depression revealed that two-thirds of the patients with depression were suffering from major depression.
Conclusion: The prevalence of depression among the elderly patients at a rural primary health care clinic was high. Primary health care doctors and staff should take extra care to detect depression when managing elderly patients.
This study aimed to established baseline data on patients' demographic and morbidity patterns over three months in the Outpatients Department (OPD) Ipoh Hospital. Entry of the first ten thousand patients into a computerised database for analysis showed that the majority were unemployed and from the low income group. There were more Malays and Indians, less Chinese. Respiratory infections accounted for 18.5 % while major chronic diseases (hypertension, diabetes mellitus, asthma) were common. Overall a wide spectrum of illnesses were seen. A career structure for OPD doctors and incorporation of Family Medicine concepts were proposed to improve primary care in OPD.
Study site: Outpatients Department (OPD), Hospital Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia