Objective: This study determined the prevalence of depression among young ophthalmologists during the COVID-19 pandemic and determined their access to mental healthcare. Methodology: In this cross-sectional study, members of the Philippine Network of Young Ophthalmologists were surveyed using an online Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), a short self-administered tool which included questions related to their current work to assess depression. The respondents were also asked if there was available, accessible, affordable, adequate, and acceptable mental healthcare to them answerable by yes, no, or maybe. Results: Seventy (70) respondents were included in the analysis. The mean age was 33±5 years with 54% being female. Forty-five (45) or 64% were resident trainees with a mean number of years in the training of 2±1 years. The median score for the PHQ-9 was 6.5 (3,12). Forty-two (42) or 60% of the respondents had some degree of depression. Nine (9) or 13% of the respondents had no available service, 6 (9%) had no accessible service, 7 (10%) had no affordable service, and 4 (6%) had no adequate service for mental healthcare for them. Conclusion More than half of the ophthalmologists-in-training and newly practicing suffered from some degree of depression based on the PHQ-9 questionnaire. A significant proportion was either not sure or do not have available, accessible, affordable, and adequate mental healthcare services for them.
Mental Health ; COVID-19 ; Patient Health Questionnaire

OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to determine the prevalence, most common symptoms and sociodemographic factors associated with depression among physicians in a government COVID-Center i.e. Southern Philippines Medical Center-Institute of Psychiatry & Behavioral Medicine in Bajada, Davao City METHODOLOGY: This cross-sectional, survey-based study collected socio-demographic data and PHQ-9 scores using Google Forms, from resident physicians from July 1 to August 31 2020. Multinomial logistics regression analysis was used to identify risk factors of depression. RESULTS: Two hundred fifty-one (251) out of 376 physicians responded (68.39% response rate). The average age was 30 years old, majority were female (58.57%, 147), single (78.88%,198), frontliners (77.29%, 194), with average hospital experience of 2.0 years. Ninety six (38.26%) were assigned in surgical departments while 155 (61.75%) worked in nonsurgical departments. There were twelve respondents (4.78%) who had a history of psychiatric illness and 31 (12.35%) had previous psychiatric intervention, while 66 (26.29%) had a history of medical illness. Eighty-five (33.86%) had depression using PHQ-9; 57 (22.71%) as mild, 19 (7.57%) moderate, 7 (2.79%) moderately severe and 2 (0.8%) severe. Out of 85 residents who were depressed, the most common symptoms were: low energy (81, 95.29%); anhedonia (76, 89.41%); and feeling depressed (72, 84.70%). Medical illness was associated with higher levels of depression. Physicians with a history of psychiatric illness, psychiatric intervention and medical illness had significantly higher levels of depression. CONCLUSION More than a third (33.86%) of physicians screened positive for depression. Current mental health programs must be strengthened and made specific, to prevent and address depression especially among those who have a history of psychiatric and medical illness.
depression ; Patient Health Questionnaire ; COVID-19

Objective: The study aimed to assess the validity of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network Distress Thermometer (NCCN-DT) for determining psychosocial distress, as applied to Filipino patients with cancer. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional descriptive study that included adult patients with cancer undergoing treatment at a tertiary private hospital. The NCCN-DT was administered to the patients together with the Patient Health Questionnaire-8 (PHQ-8) as the gold standard diagnostic test for psychosocial distress. Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) analysis was done to determine the accuracy of the NCCN-DT as a screening tool. Results: We included 114 Filipino adults with cancer. The ROC analysis showed an Area Under the ROC Curve (AUC) score of 0.98 for the NCCN-DT against the PHQ-8. The cut-off score of ≥7 showed a sensitivity of 100% and specificity of 89.3% for detecting distress. The positive predictors for distress were identified: sadness (P<0.001), fear (P=0.001), depression (P=0.002), worry (P=0.02), childcare (P=0.03), fatigue (P=0.03), treatment decisions (P=0.04), loss of interest in usual activities (P=0.04), and memory/concentration (P=0.04). Conclusion The NCCN-DT had satisfactory diagnostic accuracy in agreement with PHQ-8 for screening of psychosocial distress among Filipino cancer patients. A cut-off score of ≥7 using the NCCN-DT gave the highest sensitivity and specificity for detecting distress in this population. The findings of this study can be used as validation of the NCCN-DT screening tool for a prospective application.
Anxiety ; Depression ; Fear ; Sadness ; Patient Health Questionnaire

Background: Psoriasis vulgaris is a chronic immune-mediated inflammatory multi-system disease characterised by keratinocyte hyperproliferation. Data regarding patients’ disease severity, knowledge and quality of life (QOL) is important to optimize treatment strategies for psoriasis. This study aims to evaluate and investigate the relationship between disease severity, knowledge and QOL of patients with psoriasis. Methods: A cross-sectional multicentre study utilizing a socio-demographic data collection form, Psoriasis Knowledge Assessment Questionnaire (PKAQ), Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI) and Psoriasis Area and Severity Index (PASI was conducted. Correlations between PKAQ, DLQI and PASI were analysed using Spearman’s test. Results: A total of 114 subjects participated in this study. Majority of them had mild psoriasis (n=73, 64%) based on PASI. The mean score of PKAQ was fourteen out of a total possible score of twenty-five, whereas the DLQI had a non-parametric distribution with a median (interquartile range) of 7 (10). Most subjects (32.5%) stated that psoriasis had a ‘moderate effect’ on their QOL, while only 3.5% said that it had an ‘extremely large effect’ on their QOL. There was a statistically significant correlation between PASI and DLQI (rs = 0.264, p = 0.004), with higher PASI scores corresponding to higher DLQI scores. No statistically significant correlation was found between DLQI and PKAQ (rs = -0.048, p= 0.612), and between PASI and PKAQ (rs = 0.058, p= 0.542). Conclusion Impairment of QOL was positively associated with severity of psoriasis. However, there was no significant relationship between knowledge and quality of life, as well as between knowledge and psoriasis severity.
Psoriasis--diagnosis ; Patient Acuity ; Quality of Life--psychology ; Patient Health Questionnaire

Objective: To investigate the relationship of erectile dysfunction (ED) with psychological factors in male patients with infertility. METHODS: We conducted a questionnaire investigation among 252 male patients with infertility, which involved the general condition, results of semen routine examination, sexual life, and scores in IIEF-5, self-reported 9-item patient health questionnaire (PHQ-9) and 7-item generalized anxiety disorder scale (GAD-7). We analyzed the prevalence of ED, depression, and anxiety and their correlations among the patients in comparison with 100 fertile male controls. RESULTS: In 245 of the infertility patients, the most common symptoms of depression and anxiety were "feeling tired or no vitality" and "easily getting worried or impatient", 20.4% of them with depression disorder and 42.9% with anxiety disorder. The PHQ-9 and GAD-7 scores were significantly higher in the infertile males than in the normal fertile controls (P <0.05), and so was the incidence of ED (28.6% vs 12.4%, P <0.05), while the IIEF-5 scores were markedly lower in the former than in the latter group (P <0.01), and so were sex frequency and sexual satisfaction (P <0.05). The PHQ-9 and GAD-7 scores were remarkably higher in the infertility patients with ED than in those without (P <0.01). Logistic regression analysis showed that the level of libido and results of semen routine examination were the risk factors for depression disorder, while age, education level, disease course and experience of assisted reproduction were those for anxiety disorder. CONCLUSIONS Male infertility patients have a poorer mental health and a higher incidence of ED than normal fertile men, and there is some interaction between psychological status and ED prevalence.
Anxiety ; epidemiology ; Depression ; epidemiology ; Erectile Dysfunction ; epidemiology ; psychology ; Humans ; Infertility, Male ; psychology ; Libido ; Male ; Patient Health Questionnaire ; Prevalence ; Risk Factors ; Semen Analysis ; Sexual Behavior