Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology
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Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol · Sep 2008
The development of needs in a group of severely mentally ill. A 10-year follow-up study after the 1995 Swedish mental health care reform.
The objective of this study was to follow the development of met and unmet needs in a sample of severely mentally ill after the 1995 Swedish mental health care reform and to analyse whether the efforts made by social services and mental health care have been more adequate since the reform. ⋯ The target group had made some progress referring to their functional disability and the efforts from services had increased. However, the integration in society had decreased in fundamental aspects.
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Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol · Sep 2008
Clinical epidemiology in patients admitted at Mathari Psychiatric Hospital, Nairobi, Kenya.
Knowledge of types and co-morbidities of disorders seen in any facility is useful for clinical practice and planning for services. ⋯ DSM-IV substance use disorders, major psychiatric disorders and anxiety disorders were prevalent and co-morbid. However, anxiety disorders were hardly diagnosed and therefore not managed. Suicidal symptoms were common. These results call for more inclusive clinical diagnostic practice. Standardized clinical practice using a diagnostic tool on routine basis will go a long way in ensuring that no DSM-IV diagnosis is missed. This will improve clinical management of patients and documentation.
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Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol · Aug 2008
Mortality associated with depression: a forty-year perspective from the Stirling County Study.
This report concerns long-term mortality risks associated with depression, and the potentially confounding factors of alcoholism and cigarette smoking, as experienced by a general population assessed at a baseline in 1952, followed for re-assessment of survivors in 1968, and for death by 1992. ⋯ At the baseline of the Stirling County Study, the mortality risk associated with depression among men was not enhanced or explained by abuse of alcohol or nicotine, mainly because comorbidity was rare at that time. The longitudinal research of the study has pointed to a number of psychiatrically-relevant time-trends such as the fact that an association between depression and cigarette smoking did not appear until the 1990s. It is hypothesized that a similar trend may emerge over time regarding the comorbidity of depression and alcoholism. A trend reported here was that, while depressed women in the original sample did not carry a significant mortality risk, the surviving women who were depressed at the time of re-assessment exhibited a mortality risk that was as significant as that for men. Such information may provide a useful back-drop for future investigations.
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Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol · Jul 2008
Comparative StudyAlcohol use prevalence and sociodemographic correlates of alcohol use in a university student sample in Turkey.
This study is a survey to determine prevalence and sociodemographic correlates of drinking problems among students from five university centres in Turkey. ⋯ Drinking problems among university students in Turkey are more prevalent when compared with prevalence rates shown in other surveys in Turkey. Alternative ways of socialization should be provided for the university youth in order to prevent alcohol use problems in the future.
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Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol · Jun 2008
The impact of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission on psychological distress and forgiveness in South Africa.
Legislation to establish a Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was passed soon after election of South Africa's first democratic government. Discourse around the TRC focused on the importance of bearing witness to the past, and on the healing powers of forgiveness. However, there was also a concern that individuals with TRC relevant experience would simply be re-traumatized by participation in the process. To date, there has been little empirical data for either hypothesis. ⋯ In this cross-sectional study, causal relationships are difficult to ascertain. Nevertheless, relationships between increased distress/anger, having a TRC relevant experience to share, and negative perceptions of the TRC, support a view that bearing testimony is not necessarily helpful to survivors. However, in the population as a whole, moderately positive attitudes towards the TRC across sociodemographic variables support a view that the TRC helped provide knowledge and acknowledgment of the past.