With two cueing tasks, in the present study we examined output-based inhibitory cueing effects (ICEs) with manual responses to arrow targets following manual or saccadic responses to arrow cues. In all experiments, ICEs were observed when manual localization responses were required to both the cues and targets, but only when the cue-target onset asynchrony (CTOA) was 2,000 ms or longer. In contrast, when saccadic responses were made in response to the cues, ICEs were only observed with CTOAs of 2,000 ms or less-and only when an auditory cue-back signal was used. The present study also showed that the magnitude of ICEs following saccadic responses to arrow cues decreased with time, much like traditional inhibition-of-return effects. The magnitude of ICEs following manual responses to arrow cues, however, appeared later in time and had no sign of decreasing even 3 s after cue onset. These findings suggest that ICEs linked to skeletomotor activation do exist and that the ICEs evoked by oculomotor activation can carry over to the skeletomotor system.
INTRODUCTION: Our study aims to determine the prevalence of nicotine dependence and investigate the effect of nicotine dependence on psychopathology among schizophrenia patients.
METHODS: A cross-sectional study was carried out in an outpatient psychiatric clinic at a general hospital in Malaysia. 180 recruited subjects were administered the Malay version of Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI), the Positive and Negative Symptom Scale (PANSS), and the Malay version of Fagerstrom Test for Nicotine Dependence (FTND-M) questionnaires.
RESULTS: The prevalence of nicotine dependence among the subjects was 38.1% (n = 69) and they were mainly composed of male gender, Malay ethnicity, being treated with atypical antipsychotics, and taking other illicit drugs or alcohol. Subjects with severe nicotine dependence scored less in the negative subscale of PANSS compared with the nonsmokers (P = 0.011). On performing the hierarchy multiple regressions, dependence status still significantly predicted negative scores after adjusting the confounders (t = -2.87, P = 0.005).
CONCLUSION: The rate of nicotine use disorder among schizophrenia patients in this study is higher than that of the general population in Malaysia. The significant association between nicotine dependence and negative psychopathology symptoms will help the healthcare practitioners in their management of nicotine dependence among schizophrenia patients.
Study site: outpatient psychiatric clinic in a general hospital
This study has explored social carrying capacity of an underwater environment based on divers' perceived crowding. Two dimensions were assessed, the number of divers seen and the proximity of diver. Data were obtained from a survey of 132 divers dived in Mabul Island, Malaysia during 2013-2014. Photographs depicting four levels of diver number and four levels of diver proximity in different combinations were shown to the respondents for assessing their acceptability. Between the two variables, the "number of divers" was the most influential factor for divers' perceived crowding. Divers would start to feel unacceptably crowded if 8-9 divers were visible to them at one time. Based on this, it is likely that the use level of diving sites in Mabul Island has already exceeded its social carrying capacity. Implications for future research and diving tourism management for Mabul Island are also discussed in the paper.
To examine the moderating role of spirituality between hopelessness, spirituality, and suicidal ideation, 202 Iranian depressed adolescent inpatients completed measures of patient health, suicidal ideation, hopelessness, and core spiritual experience. Structural equation modelling indicated that depressed inpatients high in hopelessness, but also high in spirituality, had less suicidal ideation than others. These findings reinforce the importance of spirituality as a protective factor against hopelessness and suicidal ideation.
Learning styles and approaches of individual undergraduate medical students vary considerably and as a consequence, their learning needs also differ from one student to another. This study was conducted to identify different learning styles and approaches of pre-clinical, undergraduate medical students and also to determine the relationships of learning preferences with performances in the summative examinations.
This study aimed to validate the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) in the Malaysian urological population. Reliability and internal consistency were evaluated using the test-retest method and internal consistency was assessed using Cronbach's alpha. Responsiveness was expressed as the effect size. Internal consistency was high (Cronbach's alpha value = 0.56 to 0.87). Test-retest correlation coefficient and intraclass correlation coefficient were significant (ICC = 0.56 to 0.87) and a high degree of sensitivity and specificity. The BDI is thus a reliable and a valid instrument to be used in Malaysia.
Motivation, especially on the relationship of remuneration of government doctors to it, has long been an issue of concern. This study sought to elucidate the demotivating factors in service and the perceived discrepancy in income. It was conducted amongst doctors serving in the Ministry of Health, Negeri Sembilan, using self-administered questionnaires. Factors considered demotivating were remuneration, workload and recognition given. Career development, promotion prospects, issues with superiors, resources and patient attitudes were other factors identified. On average, respondents expect an income of 1.63 times more than their current drawn salary and 87.2% cited rewards as a recommendation to improve their satisfaction in service. In-service training was desired by almost all. Though the medical profession has traditionally been viewed as altruistic in nature, doctors in service are voicing out their views and perception, and they should be heard.
Malaysia's workforce presently includes 13% foreigners most coming from the neighboring ASEAN-countries. No data of the prevalence of psychiatric disorders amongst this population is currently available.
Matched MeSH terms: Transients and Migrants/psychology*
This paper examined the raters' and the ratees' preferences in Malaysia regarding the performance appraisal process and feedback. A total of 52 managers (raters) and 122 subordinates (ratees) participated. Analysis by t test and correlation showed significant differences between raters and the ratees on most factors. Ratees preferred to have more frequent appraisals than once a year and preferred to have more frequent feedback from the managers about their performance. Ratees' preference for the purpose of information on performance was towards salary increase, promotion, training, and career development whereas the raters gave more importance to training and career development.
Exposure to extraordinary stressors or life-threatening events has been shown to result in negative cognitive, behavioural and emotional outcomes including the cluster of symptoms constituting Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). This disorder has most often been studied in military veterans and victims of abuse who also show high rates of comorbid conditions. We report a case of PTSD following an electrical injury in a patient with no past psychiatric history. Implications for a full range of examinations including comprehensive neuropsychiatric testing are discussed. Results suggest that such approach addresses the complexity of a differential diagnosis between organic and psychiatric dysfunctions.
Recurrent abdominal pain in children is not a single condition but a description of a wide spectrum of clinical manifestations, some of which fit into a definite pattern, such as the irritable bowel syndrome, while others do not. Organic disorders may be present, but in the majority of children they cannot be detected. Although children with recurrent abdominal pain do not generally have psychological or psychiatric illness, there is a growing body of evidence to suggest that psychosocial stress plays an important role in this condition. This review will look into some of this evidence. The precise pathophysiology that results in abdominal pain is still not clearly understood, but the current belief is that visceral hypersensitivity or hyperalgesia and changes in the brain-gut axis linking the central and enteric nervous systems are important mechanisms.
This retrospective study presents data from 26 women who underwent a reversal of female sterilization. The intrauterine pregnancy rate and ectopic pregnancy rate were 38.5% and 7.7% respectively. The most successful site of tubal anastomosis was isthmic-isthmic anastomosis. The importance of proper patient selection and factors that affect the success rate in attempted reversals are emphasised. The importance of microsurgical approach is highlighted.
One hundred and twenty-eight medical students who had experienced a traditional-style preclinical curriculum completed three self-report questionnaires. Using factor analysis of students' responses this study explores interactions between study orientation, preferences for different kinds of learning environment, and evaluations of the physiology course. Such interactions can provide insight into the reasons why students fail to adopt effective learning strategies. Although many students had the intention to understand, they did not adopt a deep approach. Achievement motivation was strong, test anxiety high, and the course was perceived to be competitive. The meaning orientation merged with the achieving orientation; students were thus performance rather than task oriented. These students perceived the course to have been challenging, as did students within the reproducing orientation and who had 'surface' preferences. Students within the non-academic orientation had difficulty coping with the course. The findings suggest that conventional teaching and assessment methods are preventing students from developing appropriate criteria and internal standards for evaluating performance. An illusion of comprehension may prevent students from seeing the need to adopt more effective learning strategies and cause 'good' students with the ability to adopt a deep approach to abort the pursuit of deep understanding. Students' preferences and evaluations of teaching and assessment indicate that students within the different learning orientations have different educational needs. The implications for instruction and evaluation are discussed.
The invasion of Singapore and Malaya was delayed because of the reduction in the period of service in the Far East. The atom bombs were then dropped and plans for all services including medical ones had to be altered, their main aim becoming the treatment and repatriation of surviving prisoners of war. The ending of the war did not occur abruptly on V-J day; many Japanese troops had to be convinced that the war was over. Meantime the treatment of diseases in British and other service men continued; reference is made to some experiences in Rangoon. The morale of personnel who now were anxious to return to their homes was low and efforts were made to raise their spirits. In India it was accepted that the days of British rule were over.
We examined the effects of stereotyping on impression formation when encountering people dressed to represent a religious faith. We used stimulus photographs of eight male and female models dressed casually and a second photograph of one male and one female model in religious attire that was placed beside the control photos of models dressed causally. From each set of photographs, subjects selected a photo of the person with whom they would associate the various positive personality traits suggested by our stimulus questions. Subjects were students from a U.S. Catholic school, a U.S. public school, and a Malaysian Muslim school. All the subjects attributed more of the positive traits to photos of the models who were religiously attired than to photos of those who were casually dressed, but subjects from U.S. schools attributed more of the positive traits to the photos of religiously dressed models than did the subjects from the Malaysian school.
A 32-year-old Chinese lady presented to the Psychiatric Clinic with a history of change in personality for 2 years and abnormal movements for a year. After thorough investigations and observation a diagnosis of Huntington's Disease was made. Her elder brother was traced and found to have Huntington's Disease as well. He had a long standing history of antisocial behaviour and substance abuse long before the onset of the choreiform movements. Her younger brother also has choreiform movements for the last 2 years and had recent change in personality. Their mother also had abnormal movements and was recorded to be depressed and attempted suicide. The maternal grandfather had a mental illness and was warded at a mental institution till his death in 1942. Psychiatric presentation of Huntington's Disease in this Malaysian family is prominent and preceded the characteristic movements in the present generation.
The purpose of this study is to explore the types of problem students that clinical teachers encounter in clinical settings. A questionnaire developed by the Association of American Medical Colleges that lists a variety of types of problem students was completed by 466 clinicians at the University of Washington School of Medicine (UWSOM) and 98 Malaysian clinicians from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) and Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM). In addition, 120 medical students from UKM completed a slightly modified version of this questionnaire. Both the faculty and student questionnaires asked the respondent to identify the frequency of a given problem type. The faculty was also asked to estimate how difficult it was to evaluate a specific problem. In general, there was strong agreement among the North American and Malaysian faculty on the frequency and difficulty of the 24 types of problem students listed. There were some notable differences, such as Malaysian teachers perceiving the "shy" student more frequently than their North American counterparts who rated the student with deficits in knowledge more frequently. However, the overall similarity in the rankings suggest that clinical teachers face similar types of problems, independent of cultural differences and institutional differences.