1.Anxiety and depression in patients with haematological neoplasms in Malaysia
Gin Gin Gan ; Diana Leh Ching Ng ; Yeh Chwan Leong ; Ping Chong Bee ; Edmund Fui Min Chin ; Habibah Abdul Halim ; Tengku Ahmad Hidayat Tengku Aziz ; Henning Loo ; Alan KH Teh
The Medical Journal of Malaysia 2019;74(3):191-197
Background: It is not uncommon that anxiety and
depression occur in patients with cancers, and past
researches have shown that the quality of life of patients is
negatively affected. This study aims to determine the
prevalence of anxiety and depression of patients with
haematological cancers in Malaysia and to investigate the
possible association of these psychological symptoms with
their quality of life.
Methods: This is a cross-sectional study where patients with
haematological cancers attending two major hospitals were
recruited. Anxiety and depression symptoms were assessed
using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression scale (HADS).
Quality of life (QoL) of these patients was measured using
the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of
Cancer quality of life questionnaire (EORTC QLQ C30). An
overall summary QoL score in combination with financial
difficulty score and global health score were used for
analysis.
Results: A total of 319 patients were recruited. Thirty-three
percent of patients had anxiety symptoms, 23.5% had
depression symptoms. In summary the overall score of QoL
is significantly lower in patients with higher scores for
depression and anxiety, (p<0.05). Patients who exhibit
anxiety symptoms were more frequently female, still
undergoing treatment whereas patients who had higher
depression scores were older and had acute leukemias or
myeloproliferative neoplasms. Patients who have
depression are significantly associated with a higher
financial difficulty score, p<0.05.
Conclusion: The poor quality of life in patients who have
anxiety and depression should raise awareness amongst the
health professions treating them so that additional support
can be provided.
2.SCOPING REVIEW: POTENTIAL WOUND HEALING EFFECT OF EUPHORBIA HIRTA (ARA TANAH) BASED ON IN VIVO MODELS
Terence Yew Chin Tan ; Norliyana Mohamed Yusoff ; Raja Nazatul Izni Raja Shahriman Shah ; Norman Dhamendran David ; Bee Ping Teh
Journal of University of Malaya Medical Centre 2020;23(2):92-98
Wound management is important as it helps to promote healing without microbial infection. Euphorbia hirta, a species of Euphorbiaceae family, also known as Ara tanah among Malaysians, is traditionally used to promote wound healing where its poultice is applied to the sores on the legs, bruises and wounds. Several reported pharmacological properties including antioxidant, antimicrobial, antidiabetic, anti-anaphylactic activities have been reported on this plant. The aim of this review was to evaluate the wound healing effects of E. hirta. Information involving only in vivo studies on wound healing effect of E. hirta was searched using electronic databases. The electronic databases include PubMed, Google Scholar, Ovid, CENTRAL, LILACS, and ClinicalTrials.gov from year 1962 to 2020. A total of five out of 70 studies were included and assessment was made. All included articles studied different wound models in rats. All showed significant wound healing activity with different mechanism of action for incision, excision and dead space wound. Quality assessment of the included studies suggested that experimental animal study design can be improved. It can be concluded that E. hirta displayed potential as a wound healing agent in vivo studies although further research on structureactivity relationship of compounds responsible for the wound healing effect and toxicological studies before it can proceed to clinical studies.
Euphorbia
;
Wounds and Injuries
;
Wound Healing
;