This study shows that most of the patients suffering from mental illness prefer to approach faith healers first, which may delay entry to psychiatric care and thereby negatively impact the prognosis of BAD. This highlights the importance of mental health education and developing a positive collaborative relationship with traditional healers.
The prevalence of metabolic syndrome does not differ in schizophrenia whether patients are receiving polypharmacy and monotherapy nor do they differ for individual metabolic parameters. Most antipsychotic-related characteristics did not predict for metabolic syndrome.
Objective: To evaluate the impact of iron chelating drugs and serum ferritin on the neurocognitive functions of patients with β thalassemia major (β-TM), using psychometric, neurophysiologic and radiologic tests. Methods: Eighty children with β-TM were enrolled into the study and were compared to 40 healthy controls. All participants were evaluated by measuring serum ferritin, neurocognitive assessment by Benton Visual Retention Test, Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, Wisconsin Card Sort Test, P300 and magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS). Results: WISC in our study showed that 40% of cases were borderline mental function as regards total IQ. Neurophysiologic tests were significantly impaired in patients compared to control group, with significant impairment in those receiving desferrioxamine (DFO). P300 amplitude was significantly lower in cases compared to controls (2.24 and 4.66 uv, respectively), recording the shortest amplitude in patients receiving DFO. Altered metabolic markers in the brain were detected by MRS in the form of reduced N-acetylaspartate to creatine ratio in 78.3% of our cases. There were significant correlations between psychometric tests and both neurophysiologic (P300) and radiologic (MRS) tests. Conclusion: β-TM is associated with neurocognitive impairment that can be assessed by psychometric, neurophysiologic and radiologic tests. The role of hemosiderosis and iron chelation therapy on cognitive functioning still need more research.
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