GLOBAL PSYCHIATRY

Background: Depression is the second major cause of disability and is a principal source of disease burden worldwide which is quite common among international students.
Aim: This study explored the depression and its associated factors among international students of a private university in Bangladesh.
Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted among 149 international students at a private university in Dhaka, Bangladesh using the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression (CES-D 10) Scale.
Results: The prevalence of depressive symptoms among international students was 47.7%. Students’ age, marital status, satisfaction with living conditions and problems concerning studies, food, homesickness, finances, accommodation, and health were significantly associated with depression.
Conclusion: This study concluded that there is an unmet need for psychological support for international students studying in Bangladesh. Appropriate support services should be directed to them to help and to overcome the challenges they face.

Background:  An adequate number of empirical studies is necessary to formulate a national suicide prevention programme.
Aims:  To assess the extent of empirical studies on suicide in a decade (2011-2020) in Bangladesh.
Materials and methods: A literature search was conducted to identify the articles available in PubMed, PubMed Central, Scopus, Google Scholar, and BanglaJOL using the search term “suicide in Bangladesh”, “self-harm in Bangladesh”, “poisoning in Bangladesh”, “suicidal behaviour in Bangladesh”. We included all the original articles in full-length format that were published in the English language, accessible in the full texts, published between 2011 and 2020, and assessing suicidal behaviour in Bangladesh. A total of 44 empirical studies were included in this review.
Results: Among the 44 studies, 6.8% were qualitative studies, 34.1% applied interview, 31.8% analysed the secondary data. All the studies followed a cross-sectional design, nine studies assessed youth suicidality, and only one study assessed the suicidality among the elderly. Studies of the earlier half of the decade explored epidemiological aspects, whereas studies in the last five years assessed the newer topics such as quality of media reporting, psychological autopsy study, perspectives after nonfatal attempt, sociological perspectives, ontological perspectives, masculinity, and suicide, and financial loss due to suicide. About 41% of the papers had a collaboration with the authors of other countries, and about 18.2% of the papers were externally funded either partially or fully.
Conclusion: Although newer studies are coming out, suicide is an under-studied public health problem as no nationwide, longitudinal and interventional study has been identified during a decade (2011-2020) in Bangladesh. The proper attention of all the stakeholders is warranted to improve the scenario.

Objectives
Bangladesh is a densely populated country in south-east Asia with paucity of research in suicide. This systematic review was aimed at critical appraising various aspects of suicide in Bangladesh based on available literature and systematic search.


Methods
Extensive literature search was conducted in Scopus, PubMed, PubMed Central, Google, Google Scholar and BanglaJOL with searching key words without any date boundary and without any basis of types of studies, that is, all types of studies were scrutinised. The author focused on sources of suicide data along with epidemiological variables of suicides in Bangladesh such as suicide rate, gender of victims, methods of suicides, risk factors and prevention activities and role of media in suicide.


Results
After exclusion of repetitions, screening was performed, and finally, 35 articles were selected for review. Amongst the 35 articles, 16 articles were original contributions, 2 systematic reviews, 6 narrative reviews, 2 scoping reviews, 3 editorials, 3 case reports and rest correspondence article. The review revealed that the actual rate of suicide in Bangladesh is yet to come out and quality data is a real challenge. Women are dying more than the men, and early adulthood is the most vulnerable time of life.


Discussion
Suicide is a under attended problem in Bangladesh, as the country yet to reveal the actual rate of suicide along with the challenge of quality data. Prevention activities have been started but yet to be visualised. Decriminalisation of suicide in the legal criteria and establishment of suicide surveillance can be the top priorities in the country.










 

Objectives
Early detection of depression has been assumed to lead to its earlier and better care. Increased depression literacy among the general population might play a vital role in the early and successful detection and treatment. We aimed to investigate depression literacy among the first year university students, to be able to compare their depression literacy with those of other previously investigated groups, we hypothesized that depression literacy might be different from other groups such as patients and other subjects from the general population. Knowledge about depression might also be different in female and male students.


Methods
This cross-sectional study was conducted among the first-year students of Jahangirnagar University, Bangladesh between January and May 2018. A convenience sample of 306 students was randomly identified from a list of students obtained from the authority. Relevant sociodemographic variables were collected. Students were interviewed using the Bangla Depression Literacy scale (D-Lit Bangla). This was a semi structured interview asking for the knowledge on 20 different characteristics of depression. Collected data were analysed to estimate the mean score and 95% confidence intervals of D-Lit Bangla scores.


Results
The mean score of the correctly identified characteristics of depression was 6.55 (95% CI = 6.31 to 6.89). Only five characteristics of depression were correctly identified by more than 50% participants, that is, sleep change (76.7%), feeling of guilt (75.2%), low self-esteem (81.8%), psychomotor changes (64.6%) and identification of famous people suffering from depression (66.7%). Only a very small portion of the participants correctly knew about psychotic symptoms and different options for the treatment of depression. There were no significant differences between male and female students in the amount and pattern of knowledge of depression.


Conclusions
The study revealed poor literacy status among the first-year university students of Bangladesh. Both male and female gender have similar amount of depression literacy.










 

Objective
The 6 item Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K6) is a screening tool for psychological distress with robust psychometric properties; however, information is lacking on such properties of the scale on its Bangla version. The aim of this study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Bangla version of the K6 scale in young people.


Method
A self-administered questionnaire survey was conducted between August 2017 and April 2018 among 718 students aged 13-24 years (45% females) from Dhaka, Bangladesh. Psychological distress was assessed using the Bangla K6. The survey was repeated in a week. Statistical software AMOS 25 and Stata SE 14 were used to conduct the analyses.


Results
The Bangla K6 scale demonstrated an acceptable internal consistency with high Cronbach alpha. Principal component analysis confirmed a single-factor structure of the scale. Confirmatory factor analysis supported the one-factor structure of the scale with adequate fit to the survey data. Test-retest reliability was acceptable with good reliability coefficients. Receiver operating characteristic analyses showed good prediction of depressive symptoms by the Bangla K6 scores.


Discussion
This study provides an initial support for the Bangla K6 scale as an acceptable instrument to assess psychological distress of Bangla-speaking young people. More research is needed to understand our ability to identify vulnerable individuals, whose native language is Bangla and who are in need of mental health support.










 

Objectives
Riverbank erosion is a regular phenomenon that displaces millions of people every year worldwide. More than 100,000 people are displaced due to river erosion every year in Bangladesh. People have to resettle in a different place leaving behind their property and familiar environment. This transformation with economic crisis acts as a major stressor for the persons and their families. However, people may adapt different strategies to adapt this difficult situation and keep themselves healthy. They might have higher coping skills due to what they had to endure. This study aimed to find out the difference in the mental health status and coping strategies among the river bank erosion affected and non-affected people in Bangladesh


Methods
We interviewed 100 adult respondents, of whom 50 had been affected and 50 had never been affected by river erosion in Bangladesh. All the participants completed self-report sociodemographic questionnaires; their mental state was evaluated with the Bangla version of the General Health Questionnaire-12 (GHQ-12) and the coping was measured using the COPE scale.


Result
The mental health well-being score of the affected group was significantly lower than the non-affected group. However, accounting for gender, income and age, the affected group had lower mean score in coping (55.86) then the non-affected group (64.04). However, the difference was not statistically significant.


Conclusions
Riverbank erosion is a major natural disaster in Bangladesh that makes people vulnerable to mental disorder. However, it receives less attention; we hope this study will stimulate future researcher to explore mental state and coping mechanism in multiple perspectives and develop evidence-based service for them.