Objective: To investigate patient’s perceived satisfaction and adequacy of information given by doctors on prescribed drugs in an outpatient psychiatric setting. Methods: The sampling was done consecutively with a target sample size of 200 patients. A simple questionnaire that was developed with 10 close-ended questions and yes or no answers was administered by the interviewing team. This questionnaire assessed patients' knowledge on prescribed medications and their perception on the adequacy of information given. Results: More than 80% of the patients were informed regarding the reasons, timing to take medication(s), duration of drug treatment and type of prescribed drugs. Half of them were informed regarding the side effect profiles of their prescribed medications. Majority of them (80%) were satisfied with the information given despite only 49% of the patients being given adequate information on their medications. Conclusion: Patients who are adequately informed about their medications are more significantly satisfied than those inadequately informed. (χ2=4.085, p<0.05).

Objective: To study the effect of depressive disorders, severity of depression and, sociodemographic factors on drug compliance among hypertensive patients at primary care clinics. Methods: A total of 201 hypertensive patients on treatment for at least 3 months who attended the HUKM Primary Care Clinic and Salak Polyclinic were selected for this study. Patients were screened for depressive disorders using the Hospital Anxiety Depression Scale (HADS) and those who scored 8 and more were further interviewed to establish a diagnosis using the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI). Patients who were diagnosed to have depressive disorders were further rated for the severity of the illness by using Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HAMD). Drug compliance was assessed during a 2 month follow up using the pill counting method (ratio 0.8 – 1.2 considered as compliant). Results: The prevalence of non-compliance among hypertensive patients was 38.3%. There was no association between the diagnosis of depressive disorders and drug compliance. Among the 12 patients who had depressive disorders, severity of depression as rated by HAMD, showed significant association with drug compliance (Mann-Whitney test z = -2.083, p<0.05).Conclusion: The results suggested that severity of depression has significant association with poor compliance to medical treatment. It is therefore very important to identify and treat depression to avoid poor drug compliance and further complications related to hypertension.

Critical review paper is one of the components in the theory examination for master of medicine (psychiatry) and master of psychological medicine part II. Majority of the students find critical review paper is difficult to pass. Thus this article is useful to help them. The paper discussed below is aimed to determine the validity and examine the reliability of the Malay version of Auditory Verbal Learning Test (MVAVLT) for Malaysian population use. They also wanted to determine the level of performance of the test among schizophrenia patients. The data were subjected to the principal component factor analysis (PCA) with varimax rotation using a single factor. Questions for this paper mainly discussed the validity and factor analysis concept.

Objective: Critical appraisal is a process of systematically examining research evidence to assess its validity, results and relevance before using it to form a decision. A basic knowledge in statistic and epidemiology is important among postgraduate students in psychiatry to acquire the skills for appraising clinical research evidence. This is a descriptive study that attempts to look into the level of knowledge among the postgraduate psychiatry students in terms of statistic and epidemiology. Methods: A total of 31 postgraduate students in their second (N= 26) and third year (N=5) Master of Medicine (Psychiatry) and Master of Psychological Medicine from three different universities, namely: Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Universiti Malaya and Universiti Sains Malaysia participated in this research. The participants were asked to answer 7 questions within 30 minutes. The passing mark for this critical review paper is set at 25 out of 50. Results: Overall, only 32.3% passed the mock critical review paper. About 67.7% of the students passed their epidemiology component and only 19.4% passed the statistic component. Conclusion: We found poor performance in basic statistics among psychiatric trainees which highlights the need for further improvement in the subject’s training.

Objective: This study aimed to determine the association between the personality traits and social factors with compliance to anti-hypertensive pharmachotherapy. Methods: This cross sectional study was conducted from 1st of June until 31st of December 2004, which involved Hospital Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Primary Polyclinic in Bandar Tasik Selatan, Cheras and Salak Polyclinic in Sepang, Selangor. A total of 200 patients who fulfilled all the inclusion criteria, were selected as respondents. This study used the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (M.I.N.I) for the psychiatric diagnoses and personality characteristics were assessed by using Personality Assessment Schedule (PAS) Results: The prevalence rate of non-compliance was 38.5%. Paranoid personality trait (27.3%) was the most common type of personality traits that associated with non-compliance to the medications prescribed. The results of this study revealed a statistically significant difference between drug compliance and age, race, gender and the site where the study was conducted. No association was found between patients’ education level, occupation, income, marital status, family history of hypertension and personality traits and drug compliance. Conclusion: This study suggested that drug compliance among hypertensive patients was influenced by the presence of psychosocial factors. Hence, it is important for medical practitioners to understand these factors and administer treatment more individual.

Introduction: Despite the high prevalence rates of depression amongst chronic pain patients reported globally, the condition is often under-recognised and under-treated. Depression frequently complicates the effective management of pain and is associated with poor quality of life. This study aimed to explore the incidence of depression and its’ associated factors in a sample of chronic pain patients in Malaysia. Materials and methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted amongst clinically diagnosed chronic pain patients from the pain management clinic of Hospital Tengku Ampuan Rahimah over a period of seven months. Socio-demographics and clinical data were obtained from patients’ interview and medical records. The validated Depression Anxiety Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21) was used for screening and Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI) was used to establish the depression diagnoses among the patients. Numeric pain intensity scale was used to assess the severity of pain. Results: Eighty-three patients with a mean age of 50.4±12.50 years participated in this study. The majority of the patients were females (56.6%), married (85.5%) and being employed (49.4%). The percentage of depression was 37.4%. Depression was significantly associated with severity of pain (p<0.001) and the duration of pain (p <0.05). Conclusion: Almost one third of chronic pain patients in this study have depression. Depression was significantly associated with the severity and duration of pain. Depression should be regularly screened among patient with chronic pain.
Depression ; Pain Management

Objective: A study was conducted at the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Center (UKMMC) adult psychiatric clinic from June 2006 to December 2006. The aim was to assess the rate of the metabolic syndrome in a group of outpatients with mood disorders and schizophrenia and also to determine the relationship of this condition with sociodemographic factors and psychiatric illness characteristics. Methods: A total of 51 subjects agree to participate of which 100 were approached. The International Diabetes Federation (IDF)(2005) criteria are used for the diagnosis of metabolic syndrome and Diagnostic Statistical Manual Version IV (DSM-IV) criteria are used to made psychiatric diaognosis. Results: The prevalence of metabolic syndrome was found to be 37.2% and was significantly higher amongst mood disorders patient. However the metabolic syndrome is not associated with the anti psychotic therapy (p=0.41). Conclusion: This study suggests that it is important for the psychiatrist to monitor metabolic syndrome in any of their patients.

Objective: This case report aims to discuss the diagnosis of mental retardation as insanity defence in a crime offender. Methods: We report a gentleman who committed murder and rape 9 years ago, and currently being treated at a mental institution. Results: Patient was certified to have mental retardation, and was pleaded on the defence of unsoundness of mind because he had defect of reason at the time of alleged offence. Conclusion: Mental retardation does fulfil the McNaughton’s rule. Unsoundness of mind becomes the insanity defence even for murder under section 84 of the Penal Code.
Crime ; Intellectual Disability ; Insanity Defense

Objective: This study aims to report on the process of standard settings (SS) and to compare the passing rates between the norm-reference and SS methods, for OSCE in psychiatry undergraduate examination at UKM for 2009/2010 session. Methods: In the SS method, examiners were asked to imagine the performance of a minimally competent student and gave marks using a standardized check-list. The marks in particular outliers were discussed. After the first round, the examiners went through the same process again, to rate the minimally competent students independently. The median of the marks was taken as the passing mark for the particular question. The passing rate using the passing mark of 50% in the norm-reference method was compared to the passing rate from the passing mark obtained from the settings method. Results: For question 1, the passing rate with the norm-reference method (i.e. passing mark of 50%) was 93% (106/114) and that by the SS method was 72.8% (83/114). For question 2, the pass rate with the norm-reference method was 92% (105/114) and that by the SS method was 67.5% (77/114). Conclusion: The passing rates between the two methods showed significant differences. Although OSCE is an improvement to the undergraduate psychiatry examination in Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, there were few limitations and challenges that need to be tackled for further improvement.

Introduction: Internet gaming disorder (IGD) has recently been incorporated into the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders fifth edition (DSM-5) as a disorder for future research. The primary objectives of the present study are to describe the level of IGD and to examine its correlations with sociodemographic factors and psychological comorbidities among undergraduate students in a Malaysian university. Methods: A total of 411 undergraduate students completed an online questionnaire. They were selected from a random sample of participating university faculties. The online questionnaire contained the Internet Gaming Disorder Scale-Short-Form and the Depression, Anxiety, Stress Scale. Results: The presents study reported that 52.8% of the participants had high IGH. Using hierarchical multiple regression, age (β = -0.09, p < 0.05), gender (β = -0.40, p < 0.001) and stress (β = 0.23, p < 0.05) were statistically significant predictors of IGD. Academic performance, depression and anxiety did not emerge as significant predictors. Conclusion: These findings highlight the risk factors (in particular, stress) of IGD. Further studies on interventions, particular that of preventative strategies, will be needed to combat this emerging public health problem.