Geriatric psychiatry as a subspecialty is relatively new in our country. However, for a long time, psychiatrists in the Philippines have been treating elderly psychiatric patients.
GERIATRIC PSYCHIATRY

A post-marketing surveillance study was conducted in the Philippines in routine practice and involved 1482 patients treated with zolpidem (Stilnox R), an imidazopyridine hypnotic agent. The patient population was 53.24 percent women and 45.28 percent men with a mean age of 47 years old (18.42 percent were over 65 years old). Of the patients, 44.26 percent were treated with a zolpidem dosage of 10 mg/day and 35.96 percent, 5mg/day. The treatment duration range from 2 to 35 days and a mean of 8 days. All adverse events were collected through spontaneous reporting. Thirty-nine patients (2.6 percent) reported 79 adverse events 20 (1.3 percent) of them discontinued treatment. CNS (central nervous system) related adverse events accounted for 70 percent of the total events. The most common events were headache and drowsiness the next day in 0.88 percent and 0.81 percent of the total cases respectivelv. Dizziness, lack of concentration, restlessness, hallucinations, nightmares, incoherence and disorientation were observed in a lower proportion, with one episode of twitching of the lower extremities. No serious adverse event was reported and no new risk factors or at-risk populations were identified. The safety profile of zolpidem is thus consistent with its known pharmacological properties, the results of previous clinical trials, and the cumulative international experience gained with this short-acting hypnotic drug.
Human ; Male ; Female ; Middle Aged ; Adult ; Young Adult ; Adolescent ; SLEEP INITIATION AND MAINTENANCE DISORDERS ; ZOLPIDEM ;

OBJECTIVE: This open-label, multi-center, non-randomized study evaluated the efficacy, safety and tolerability of olanzapine in the treatment of schizophrenia or schizophreniform disorder among Filipino patients.
METHOD: Filipino outpatients with a DSM-IV diagnosis of either schizophrenia or schizophreniform disorder (N = 382) were enrolled in this study. They were treated with an initial dose of 10 mg/day of olanzapine with eventual titration to 5 to 20 mg/day as clinically indicated and were observed for 8 weeks. Efficacy was assessed with the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS) and Clinical Global Impression - Severity of Illness Scale (CGI-S). Safety was assessed by collecting adverse event reports and checking vital signs.
RESULTS: Statistically significant reductions from baseline to endpoint in both the mean BPRS Total score (from 36.77 +/- 12.12 to 11.43 +/10.39, p0.001) and mean CGI-S score (from 4.64 +/- 0.79 to 2.61 +/- 1.06, p0.001) were seen. The proportion of patients showing 20 percent improvement based on the BPRS Total score was 93.4 percent. Only 51 (13.7 percent) patients reported at least one treatment-emergent adverse event. The most commonly reported were somnolence (3.2 percent), weight loss (2.2 percent), tachycardia (1.3 percent), and headache (1.1 percent).
CONCLUSION: The study clearly demonstrates the efficacy, safety and tolerability of olanzapine in the treatment of schizophrenia and schizophreniform disorder among Filipino patients.

Human ; Male ; Female ; Middle Aged ; Adult ; Young Adult ; Adolescent ; Benzodiazepines ; Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale ; Diagnostic And Statistical Manual Of Mental Disorders ; Headache ; Outpatients ; Psychotic Disorders ; Schizophrenia ; Tachycardia ; Weight Loss

OBJECTIVE

Epidemiological studies on the prevalence and management of depression are limited in the Philippines. This review aimed to assess the prevalence of depression in the Philippines and explore the distribution of patient journey touchpoints including awareness, screening, diagnosis, treatment, adherence, and remission of depression.

METHODS

A structured literature search was conducted in the Medline, Embase, Biosis, and HERDIN PLUS databases to identify records published in English between 01 January 2010 and 31 December 2019 that reported key patient journey touchpoints in depression management in the Philippines. An unstructured literature search was conducted in public or government websites with no date restriction. Data from all sources were extracted and presented descriptively.

RESULTS

Of the 348 records retrieved, one article was included in the final analysis. The prevalence of depression was reported to be 3.34% in the Philippines. There was no data available on any of the identified patient journey touchpoints in depression.

CONCLUSION

The study findings highlight the need for more evidence-based studies in the Philippines to accurately understand the complexity of patient journey in patients with depression. This in turn can help in optimizing resource utilization, providing guidance for clinical practice, and health care reforms in the Philippines.

Depression ; Prevalence ; Philippines