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Biomedical subjects

S K Khandelwal

Publications and source records attributed to S K Khandelwal.

15 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2001

Depressive disorders in old age.

People are living longer life since with the improvement in health and medical services provided. Developing countries are not lagging behind the developed world as far as the life expectancy is concerned. The principal mental disorders of elderly people are mood disorders and dementia. In older people living in a community the rates of depressive disorders are likely to be the same as for all age groups of the general population, yet its prevalence in old age institution is high. Aetiology of depression in old age is caused by a variety of conditions namely genetic factors, physiological changes in all the systems, disability, loss of resources, some medical illness, etc. Clinical features include depressed mood most of the day, significant weight loss, persistent sleeplessness, fatigue, feelings of worthlessness, recurrent thoughts of death and suicidal attempt, etc. Tricyclic antidepressants are effective in elderly depressives. Selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors are well tolerated by elderly patients and are effective too. Electroconvulsive therapy is an alternative treatment of acute depression. Psychotherapy is often helpful and long-term care should be planned for to reduce disability.

Aged↗
PubMed1995

Eating disorders: an Indian perspective.

Anorexia nervosa and related eating disorders are rare in non-western cultures. In India the information regarding these disorders is very limited. The authors describe five cases of young women who chiefly presented with refusal to eat, persistent vomiting, marked weight loss, amenorrhea and other somatic symptoms. They did not show overactivity or disturbances in body image seen characteristically in anorexia nervosa. Though finally diagnosed and treated as cases of eating disorder, they presented considerable difficulty in diagnosis. The paper discusses the reasons for the seeming rarity of anorexia nervosa in India and sociocultural reasons for its atypical presentation.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1989

Current status of multiple personality disorder in India.

Three consecutive cases of multiple personality disorder seen over a period of 3 years at a psychiatric clinic in India are reported. The prevalence of this disorder at the clinic is about 0.15/1,000 patients per year. The authors discuss the infrequency of this diagnosis in India in contrast to the frequent diagnosis of possession syndrome for patients who have many of the same symptoms. Transcultural differences in diagnostic practices are also discussed.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1989

Lithium in pregnancy and still birth: a case report.

Although initially considered safe for the foetus, lithium has been shown to have teratogenic effects if used during the first trimester of pregnancy. Its use is also associated with a higher than expected frequency of still births and perinatal deaths. Our patient, in whom lithium prophylaxis was considered essential for clinical and social reasons, continued to take lithium without medical supervision throughout her pregnancy and had a still birth. We suggest avoiding the use of lithium at least during the first trimester of pregnancy.

Adult↗
PubMed1988

Psychiatric outpatients in a general hospital of Ethiopia: diagnostic and sociodemographic characteristics.

Delivery of mental health care in developing countries has been woefully inadequate. General hospital psychiatric units can play a significant role in providing care to the mentally ill as well as in the training of health professionals. The problems of mental illness are practically the same everywhere as has been highlighted in this paper, which discusses the functioning and diagnostic and demographic data of such a unit in Ethiopia. The paper also compares diagnostic data from Ethiopia with that of an Indian and a British study.

Adult↗
PubMed1986

Undergraduate psychiatry teaching in Ethiopia.

Many epidemiological studies have shown the magnitude and seriousness of mental disorders in developing countries. However, mental health care remains unsatisfactory owing to lack of skilled manpower and many other social and medical priorities. General practitioners and other health personnel can significantly help in extending mental health care provided they receive adequate training during their medical curriculum. With this aim, the Department of Psychiatry at Addis Ababa University runs a 6-week full-time course for undergraduate medical students. Its chief objectives, teaching methods, achievements and shortcomings are discussed in the paper.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗
PubMed1983

Saliva lithium levels for monitoring lithium prophylaxis of manic depressive psychosis.

The usefulness of salivary lithium values for monitoring long-term lithium prophylaxis was studied in 60 patients on lithium therapy. A total of 99 pairs of saliva and serum samples were obtained, and the correlation between serum and salivary lithium levels (r = 0.73) was found to be significant at the 1% level. The ratio of salivary serum levels to that of serum was found to range from 1.77 to 6.68. The ratio of 51% of the samples was between 3 and 3.99. It is therefore suggested that it is important to identify the subgroup of patients who show better correlation of salivary and serum lithium levels and use each individual's ratio to monitor only his lithium therapy.

Bipolar Disorder↗