Psychiatric well-being among men leaving prison reporting a history of injecting drug use: A longitudinal analysis

Background: Community reintegration from prison is typically stressful, with several health and social outcomes impacting psychiatric well-being during this time, often exacerbated among individuals with histories of drug use. Longitudinal data was used to assess change in psychiatric well-being over 2 years following release from prison among men who reported a recent history of injecting drug use. Methods: Data for this study come from the Prison and Transition Health cohort study of 400 men recruited in prison prior to release and followed up over three time points. Psychiatric well-being was assessed using the 12-item General Health Questionnaire. We calculated change in individual General Health Questionnaire scores between interviews and identified covariates associated with General Health Questionnaire score using linear mixed-effects regression. Results: Data from 690 follow-up interviews among 326 participants were included in analyses. There was considerable variation in individuals’ General Health Questionnaire scores. Moving accommodation frequently and frequent illicit drug injections were associated with an increase in General Health Questionnaire score (i.e. decline in psychiatric well-being). Two or more prior adult imprisonment episodes, social supports and past month primary healthcare attendance were associated with a decrease in General Health Questionnaire score. Conclusion: Our findings identify health, social and structural influences on psychiatric well-being after release from prison that can inform re-entry programmes to support community reintegration.

Distribution and correlations of school bully activities in a Central Indian district of Madhya Pradesh

Background: Bullying at schools is a known but neglected phenomenon. The study of its prevalence and correlates are essential to curb this aberrant behavior for building a healthy society. Aim and objective: This cross-sectional evaluation was carried out to study the pattern through which bully activities manifests in students from 6th to 10th standards and find its positive and negative correlates.Methods: candidates’ selection was done through simple random and proportionate sampling methods to ensure equal presentation across the board i.e., urban vs rural, types of schools, gender and class(standard).Results: 480 participants were studied both from rural and urban high schools (6th – 10th standard) in equal proportion. An equal representation (33.3%) of participants were ensured from the three groups of schools studied i.e., Girls, Co-education, and Boys, across gender (50%) and class(standard) 20% from each. The age ranged from 10 years to 18 years with the mean age at 13.9 years and a standard deviation of 1.66. From the total studied population 52% were bystanders, and 48% were engaged in some form of bully activities (20% victim, 16% bully victim, and 13% bully). While both bully and victim scores had strong interconnect (strong positive correlation r = 0.259**, p - 0.000) their relation with prosocial and self-esteem scores were negative (p – 0.001). GHQ (General Health Questionnaire) score was not related to any of the above sub-scales. Conclusion: Bully related behavior was predominant in the studied population. From the results, it appears that measures directed at improving prosocial behaviors and self-esteem of pupils can act as effective counters to the reported empathetic activities.

Affective Illness After Stroke

Mood assessments were made after six months of 149 survivors taken from a register of all patients admitted to hospital with acute stroke. Using a General Health Questionnaire score of 12 or more as a criterion of important affective illness, its prevalence was 23%. There was no difference in risk of affective illness between left and right hemisphere strokes. Affective illness was strongly associated with functional ability, with limb weakness and with longer hospital stay in those with good functional recovery. Only 15% of those with high scores were receiving antidepressant drugs. The general practitioner is in the best position to detect psychiatric illness in stroke survivors; the use of mood rating scales such as the GHQ, in conjunction with clinical assessment may improve detection.

Life Stress, Medical Lethality, and Suicidal Intent

Eighty parasuicide patients were studied. The importance of life stress, age, and General Health Questionnaire score as predictors of the suicidal intent and medical lethality which they exhibited was examined. Medical lethality and suicidal intent were closely related: those whose parasuicide resulted in high lethality differed from those showing low lethality in their degree of suicidal intent, but did not differ in life stress, age, or GHQ score. Although both life stress and GHQ score were significantly correlated with suicidal intent, the GHQ score accounted for a greater proportion of the variance. These results suggest a more complex relationship between life stress, GHQ score, and suicidal intent than is often assumed.