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Biomedical subjects

M A Abas

Publications and source records attributed to M A Abas.

6 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1998

Life events, difficulties and depression among women in an urban setting in Zimbabwe.

BACKGROUND: A previous paper (Abas & Broadhead, 1997) reported that among 172 women randomly selected from a Zimbabwean township 30.8% had a depressive or anxiety disorder during the previous year. Compared with London, the higher annual prevalence of disorders in Harare could mostly be accounted for by an excess of onset cases in the study year (annual incidence of depression 18%). This paper reports on the role of life events and difficulties in the aetiology of depression among these women. METHOD: Randomly selected women (N = 172) from a township in Harare were interviewed with a Zimbabwean modification of the Bedford College Life Events and Difficulties Schedule (LEDS). RESULTS: Events and difficulties proved critical in provoking the onset of depression in Harare. Far more events occurring in Harare were severe or disruptive. Furthermore, a proportion of the Harare severe events were more threatening than have been described in London. As in London, certain types of severe event were particularly depressogenic, i.e. those involving the woman's humiliation, her entrapment in an ongoing difficult situation, or bereavement. However, more severe events in Harare involved these specific dimensions. CONCLUSIONS: Results indicate a common mechanism for the development of depression, as defined by international criteria, between Zimbabwe and London. The high frequency of severe events, and their especially adverse qualities, offer an explanation for the high incidence of depression in Harare.

Adult↗
PubMed1998

Culturally sensitive validation of screening questionnaires for depression in older African-Caribbean people living in south London.

BACKGROUND: We tested the validity of two screens for depression in older African-Caribbean adults, the 15-item Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) and a new Caribbean Culture-Specific Screen for emotional distress (CCSS). Two independent criteria were used for validity: (a) a psychiatric diagnosis derived from GMS-AGECAT, and (b) a culturally sensitive assessment of mental disorder, derived from a tool developed with local African-Caribbean religious healers. METHOD: One hundred and sixty-four consecutive African-Caribbean primary care users, aged 60 years or older, were screened with the GDS and the CCSS. Diagnostic interviews were carried out on 80% of high scorers and 20% of low scorers. RESULTS: The number of cases detected by the two separate diagnostic approaches was similar. However, the agreement between who was and who was not a case was only modest. At a cut-off of > or = 5, the GDS was an adequate case detector for psychiatric depression, and, at a cut-off of > or = 4, for 'depressed/lost spirit', as defined by culture-specific criteria. It performed as well as the new CCSS. CONCLUSIONS: At a cut-off of > or = 4 the 15-item GDS can be recommended as a case detector for significant forms of depression in older African-Caribbean people living in south London.

Aged↗
PubMed1997

Depression and anxiety among women in an urban setting in Zimbabwe.

One hundred and seventy-two women randomly selected from a Zimbabwean township were interviewed with a Shona screen for mental disorders and a semi-structured interview to assess symptoms suggestive of emotional distress, followed by the Present State Examination. Using criteria slightly stricter than threshold level 5 of the PSE-CATEGO-ID system, 30.8% of women had a depressive or anxiety disorder during the previous year. Nearly all disorders met Bedford College criteria for depression; 65% of these also had anxiety features. Only 0.6% of women had a 'pure' anxiety disorder not preceded by or associated with depression in the study year. Compared with London, the higher annual prevalence of disorders in Harare could mostly be accounted for by an excess of onset cases in the study year, 70% of which made a full or partial recovery within 12 months. The women's own words for these episodes included 'thinking too much', 'deep sadness' and a variety of terms describing heart discomfort, interpretation showing many of the latter to be expressions for grief, fear, or the possession of an insoluble problem, and 73% explained their symptoms as caused by a specific social stressor.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1990

Neuropsychological deficits and CT scan changes in elderly depressives.

A number of computerized tests were used to study visual attention, memory and learning in elderly depressed patients. Impairment was found in approximately 70% of depressed patients and was seen particularly in memory and in measures of latency. Depressed patients showed equivalent impairment in short-term memory but less impairment in conditional associative learning compared to a group of patients with early dementia of the Alzheimer-type (DAT), matched for age and pre-morbid IQ. With respect to qualitative differences between depression and DAT, depressed patients showed a different pattern of errors and a consistently prolonged latency of response which was independent of delay in a delayed matching-to-sample test. On recovery from depression, although improvement was seen in most test scores, performance in measures of latency and in a number of tests of memory and learning failed to reach the level seen in a group of matched control subjects and approximately 35% of patients continued to show impairment. For the depressed patients, ventricular brain ratio (VBR) correlated with measures of slowing. In addition, in the 'recovered-depressives', VBR correlated with poor performance at high levels of task difficulty. These findings are discussed with respect to previous literature on the pattern of cognitive impairment and CT scan findings in depression.

Aged↗