Search

A study to estimate the prevalence of dementia in a rural population was conducted in a community located on the outskirts of Madras city in South India. Seven hundred and fifty elderly 60 years of age and older, selected using the cluster sampling technique, were interviewed using the Geriatric Mental State schedule (GMS). The prevalence of dementia was 3.5%, the percentage increasing with age. These rural prevalence estimates were higher than in urban settings (WHO multicentre study on cognitive impairment and dementia in developed and developing countries, unpublished) and male/female differences were negligible. The difficulties associated with the use of the GMS in a non-literate rural population are discussed. The implications of these findings for India's growing elderly population are highlighted. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: Our objective was to describe the goals identified by patients upon entering a specialized programme for treatment of first-episode psychosis (FEP) in Chennai, India., Methods: 68 patients with FEP completed the Goal Attainment section of the Wisconsin Quality of Life-Client Questionnaire upon entry into treatment. Patients were asked to identify a maximum of three treatment goals and rate each identified goal on its importance and the extent of its achievement., Results: In the order of frequency of endorsement, the primary goals identified pertained to work, family/interpersonal relationships, education, symptom relief and psychological recovery, living condition, religion, finances, and household responsibilities. All patients identified at least one goal, 41 patients identified two goals, and 11 patients identified three goals., Conclusion: Individuals with FEP in India present with a range of realistic and reasonable goals. Findings have implications for improving early intervention services in India by targeting patient-identified goals., (© 2011 Blackwell Publishing Asia Pty Ltd.)

A single nucleotide polymorphism (TNF(-308A)) within the promoter region of the gene encoding tumor necrosis factor (TNF), has been significantly associated with schizophrenia in a study of Italian patients and control subjects Boin et al. [2001: Mol Psychiatry 6:79-82]. We have applied case-control analyses to examine TNF promoter haplotypes (containing TNF(-308) and two additional promoter variants: TNF(-376) and TNF(-238)) in four schizophrenia cohorts drawn from Australian, Indian Fijian, Indigenous Fijian, and Brahmin populations. In addition, we have applied the sibling transmission disequilibrium (STD) test to promoter haplotypes within 81 trios drawn from Australian Caucasian pedigrees with multiple schizophrenia cases, and 86 trios drawn from the Brahmin population of Tamil Nadu province in Southern India. Within each of these cohorts, we found no evidence of recombination between these tightly linked promoter variants, supporting previous studies which demonstrated that only a subset of the eight possible haplotypes exist. Of the four observed haplotypes, we and others have observed only one carries the TNF(-308A) variant allele. We report no significant differences in TNF promoter haplotype frequencies between the patient and control groups within each population, although the Indian Fijian cohort showed a trend towards reduced TNF(-308A) alleles amongst schizophrenia cases (P = 0.07). We found no evidence of bias in TNF promoter haplotype transmission to schizophrenia probands. Very similar results were obtained when only the TNF(-308) polymorphism was considered. Taken together, these data provide no support for the involvement of TNF promoter variants TNF(-308), TNF(-376), and TNF(-238) in schizophrenia susceptibility within four ethnically distinct cohorts., (Copyright 2003 Wiley-Liss, Inc.)