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Biomedical subjects

T H Malasi

Publications and source records attributed to T H Malasi.

10 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1991

Validation of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale in Arab patients.

The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) was administered to psychiatric outpatients with various diagnoses to assess its validity. The study was also designed to find out whether HADS can differentiate between diagnostic groups based on depression and anxiety symptoms. HADS was able to discriminate patients from controls at a sensitivity of 79% and specificity of 87%. HADS was much less sensitive, specific and diagnostically accurate in identifying anxiety and depressive disorders in the experimental group at a cut-off point of 13 and 10 respectively for both conditions. Possible psychological, social and psychiatric reasons for the results are discussed.

Adult↗
PubMed1990

Olfactory delusional syndrome with various aetiologies.

Six patients who had delusional convictions that they were malodorous were followed up for between six months and four years. Difficulties encountered in clinical settings in differentiating overvalued ideas, delusions, and hallucinations arise from lack of clarity of psychopathological terminology. Schizophrenia and depression are closely related to the syndrome.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1989

Some characteristics of the psychiatric population attending a primary care centre in Kuwait.

This study examined the sociodemographic correlates of psychiatric illness in a primary care centre in Kuwait. A total of 164 psychiatric patients seen over a 3-year period formed the experimental group while 165 nonpsychiatric patients attending the same centre formed the control group. Results showed significant differences in basic demographic variables of the 2 groups. The psychiatric patients were significantly more likely to be single, unskilled, young, less educated and living alone or in an overcrowded household and to report more recent life events than controls. The absence of family and social support, lacking a meaningful job and chronicity of illness were significantly correlated with poor treatment response. Possible interpretations of the results were discussed in the cultural context of our patients. The fact that 57% of the psychiatric patients had been ill for more than 6 months prior to consultation highlights the importance of orientation of primary care practitioners to the psychiatric aetiology of somatic presentation of many of their patients.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1989

Factors influencing long-term psychiatric hospitalisation of the elderly in Kuwait.

In this study both psychosocial and clinical aspects of elderly patients were investigated in relation to long hospital stay in the only psychiatric hospital in Kuwait. Patients with longer stay did not differ statistically from short stay patients in distributions of sex, age, nationality, marital status, family system, diagnostic categories or factors blocking patients' discharge from hospital. Significant association was found between withdrawal from social interaction, and those admitted for personal suffering and those who had poor relationships with their families. Long stay elderly patients who came from extended families were more likely to be medically unfit for discharge than patients who came from nuclear families. Multivariate explorations of possible associations were performed by hierarchical loglinear analysis which revealed that long stay in hospital was significantly more likely in the widowed who had physical illness and came from extended families with poor relationships. The findings are discussed in relation to cultural and clinical background and compared to similar findings published abroad.

Aged↗
PubMed1988

Oral contraceptives, sociocultural beliefs and psychiatric symptoms.

The occurrence of psychiatric symptoms as detected by the General Health Questionnaire was examined in three groups of Moslem women. Those who used oral contraceptives were compared to those who used local contraceptives and those using no contraceptives in relation to their beliefs about prohibition of contraception by the Islamic religious code and/or about possible health hazards of contraception. Those who held one or both sets of adverse beliefs had significantly more symptoms. However the fact that women on oral contraceptives had most symptoms has been attributed to the repetitive nature of pill-taking acting as a reminder of the presumed adversity and/or to the biochemical effects of oral contraceptives.

Adult↗
PubMed1988

Some psycho-social aspects of old people living outside their families in Kuwait.

One hundred and ninety four elderly subjects were studied, 133 of whom were living away from their families, in the only old people's home and in the only psychiatric hospital in Kuwait. They were compared to 61 consecutive elderly subjects attending a psychiatric out-patient clinic. Psychiatric, social and clinical characteristics of subjects admitted and those living with their families were analysed and related to recent socioeconomic changes and conditions prevailing in Kuwait. Higher admission rates were significantly related to female sex, the widowed and single status and Kuwaiti and Bedouin nationalities. Low income or housing problems, poor relationships to their families and/or relatives, absence of an interested family member, a small number of own children, referral by family members on account of disabilities, organic brain syndromes or chronic psychiatric disorder was also associated with higher admission rates. Sixty four percent of the residents of the old people's home had psychiatric illnesses in spite of the official policy of excluding the mentally ill from admission. Some of the above mentioned characteristics were similar to findings in other countries, but others e.g. the role of nationality and location of residence in admission to institutions were different. Planning social and medical services in Kuwait should take these findings into account.

Aged↗
PubMed1986

Inter-generational conflict and psychiatric symptoms.

Secondary school pupils and their parents were investigated using the scaled version of the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-28) and by a questionnaire designed to study attitudes involved in inter-generational conflict in psychiatric patients. Parent-pupil and inter-parental conflict in answers to the attitude questionnaires were taken as measures of intergenerational and intra-generational conflicts respectively. The former significantly exceeded the latter. Parent-student conflict was higher when the students involved were females, Kuwaiti, or had less educated fathers. The tendency of the number of reported GHQ symptoms to be higher in members of families with higher inter-generational conflict did not reach statistical significance. There is an apparent discrepancy between this finding and the prominence of inter-generational conflict in clinical material.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1983

Life events and depression in transit populations.

Undesirable recent life events in the period of three months preceding primary depressive illness were studied in two Arabian Gulf countries: Qatar (235 patients) and Kuwait (164 patients). Transit population patients, who come to these countries from employment, differ from native patients in the significant predominance of work as a source of recent life events. The difference is discussed in relation to the existential committments and attitudes to work among native and transient populations. Intergenerational conflict as an undesirable recent life event is prevalent among family recent life events in native patients where rapid sociocultural changes are associated with conflict of traditional and modern value systems.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Assessment of depression in Kuwait by principal component analysis.

One hundred depressed inpatients were examined by the WHO schedule for Standardized Assessment of Depressive Disorders (SADD). A common core of symptoms is shared with patients in other studies from Western, Middle-Eastern and international studies. However, pathoplastic cultural influences are manifest in a number of symptoms, notable among which are metaphorical descriptions of symptom intensity by the overwhelmed patient, infrequency of feelings of hopelessness and suicidal attempts, masking of guilt feelings by a front of somatization and a linkage of body weight and sexual functions to health in general. Evidence is provided for a continuum-type unimodal distribution of the principal components studied.

Adult↗