Internal medicine journal
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Internal medicine journal · Jun 2013
Prevalence of depression in patients referred with snoring and obstructive sleep apnoea.
Depression and obstructive sleep apnoea are two common entities, with common symptoms that make identification of either condition difficult. Our aim was to examine, within a group of patients referred with snoring and obstructive sleep apnoea, (i) the prevalence of depression with the 14-question Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), (ii) the correlation between the two lead depression symptoms from the Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI) and HADS, and (iii) the relationship between depression symptoms with physiological markers of OSA. ⋯ Depending on classification, 32-53% of patients with snoring had depressive symptoms or were on treatment, which is significantly greater than the Australian average of 21%. A simplified depression questionnaire was validated. Severity of depression correlated with sleepiness and hypoxaemia but not with severity of sleep apnoea.
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Internal medicine journal · Jun 2013
Relationship between in-hospital location and outcomes of care in patients of a large general medical service.
The discrepancy between the number of admissions and the allocation of hospital beds means that many patients admitted under the care of a general medical service can be placed in other departments' wards. These patients are called 'outliers', and their outcomes are unknown. ⋯ Outlier patients had significantly shorter length of stay in hospital but significantly greater in-patient death rates. Surviving outlier patients had lower rates of readmission but lower rates of discharge summary completion.