The validation of the Tamil version of the 12 item general health questionnaire.

The 12 item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12), increasingly used to screen for common mental disorders (CMD) in primary care, has been validated in different languages and cultures. However, the validity of the Tamil version has not been established. Consecutive patients, attending a primary health care centre in Vellore, rural Tamil Nadu, India, were screened for CMD using the Tamil version of the GHQ-12.

The development of the Short Explanatory Model Interview (SEMI) and its use among primary-care attenders with common mental disorders.

Background: Recent anthropological studies have documented the importance of understanding the relation of culture to the experience of mental illness. The use of interviews that elicit explanatory models has facilitated such research, but currently available interviews are lengthy and impractical for epidemiological studies. This paper is a preliminary report on the development of a brief instrument to elicit explanatory models for use in field work.

Common mental disorders, explanatory models and consultation behaviour among Indian women living in the UK.

Women of Indian origin are said to have a lower rate of recognized common mental disorders and a higher frequency of consultation in primary care than white British. The aim of this study was to evaluate factors, including explanatory models (patient perspectives) of illness, associated with common mental disorders and with frequency of consultation among women of Indian origin in primary care. The investigation was conducted in a general practice in West London with a large Indian population.

The comparison of latent variable models of non-psychotic psychiatric morbidity in four culturally diverse populations.

Background: Factor analysis has been employed to identify latent variables that are unifying constructs and that parsimoniously describe correlations among a related group of variables. Confirmatory factor analysis is used to test hypothesized factor structures for a set of variables; it can also, as in this paper be used to model data from two or more groups simultaneously to determine whether they have the same factor structure.

Method: Non-psychotic psychiatric morbidity, elicited by the Revised Clinical Interview Schedule (CIS-R), from four culturally diverse populations was compared.

The validation of the 12-item General Health Questionnaire among ethnic Indian women living in the United Kingdom.

Background: The General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) has been validated in different languages and cultures and in diverse settings. However, the validity of the 12-item version, increasingly used for screening for psychiatric morbidity in primary care, has not been established among ethnic Indians living in the United Kingdom.

Methods: The GHQ-12 was used to screen for psychiatric morbidity in a study of patterns of consultation and explanatory models of mental illness in a general practice in West London.

General health questionnaire - 12: psychometric properties and factor structure among Indian women living in the United kingdom.

The psychometric properties and factor structure of the 12 item General Health Questionnaire used in a sample of women of ethnic Indian origin living in the United Kingdom is described. The Cronbach's alpha was 0.89 and the split half reliability was 0.

Depression in individuals with spinal cord injury: methodological issues.

The methodological problems in research related to depression in individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI) are examined. These include relation to normal emotional reactions following injury, the use of physical and vegetative symptoms in the diagnosis of depression, the utilisation of rating scales primarily designed for use in psychiatric populations, the heterogeneity of patients with SCI, the role of preexisting psychiatric morbidity, the selection of controls for comparison and the necessity for multivariate statistical approaches to analysis. The issues and possible solutions are discussed.

The use of multiple psychotropic medication in the treatment of mental disorders.

The concurrent use of multiple psychotropic medication has been reported to be widely prevalent in the treatment of mental disorders, and is considered inferior practice [1]. However, the complexity of the issues demands reappraisal. This paper attempts to discuss the conceptual and practical issues involved.

The quest for the etiology of mental disorders.

The evidence for the etiological basis of mental disorders is insufficient and contradictory. Such a situation has at least partly arisen due to the inherent heterogeneity within the various clinical diagnostic categories. Syndrome sub-categorization employing biological variables is suggested as a first step in order to achieve etiological homogeneity.

Psychiatric morbidity in HIV infected individuals.

Forty six subjects infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) were followed up, for recording psychiatric morbidity if any, before and after the information regarding their HIV status was revealed to them. Among these, four patients had the AIDS syndrome, while 42 individuals were HIV carriers. The pre-information morbidity in the AIDS group included two individuals who presented with delirium and one with an adjustment disorder.

The fear of AIDS: psychiatric symptom or syndrome?

The clinical characteristics of 13 patients who presented with the fear of AIDS are documented. The common features included anxiety traits in premorbid personality, a past history of promiscuous heterosexual behaviour, signs and symptoms of an anxiety state. The current controversies regarding the diagnostic status of patients presenting with the fear of AIDS and its clinical significance are discussed.