Introduction: Self-medication is increasingly being a common practice worldwide more so amongst the medical students. This study aimed to assess the prevalence of self-medication among the medical students and to describe the self-reported practice and pattern of medication by undergraduate medical students at Al-Iraqia University in Baghdad city. Methods: This study is a cross-sectional survey. Out of 440 students enrolled, 400 (>90%) responded. The data was collected using self-administrated pretested questionnaire and then analyzed using SPSS version 18.0. Results: During the last one year preceding the study, 85% of respondents using self-medication mostly among single students (98.2%), aged 20+ years old (56.5%), in fourth academic level (27.1%), living with their families (73.2%) and of non-sufficient income (54.7%). The main indication for seeking self-medication include headache as reported by 83.8% followed by cold and cough and fever 80.3% and pain elsewhere in body (70%). Drugs commonly used for self-medication included analgesics 89.4% and anti-pyretic 67.9%. Minor illness was the most common reason for self-medication (80.6%). 56.8% and 45% of respondents follow pharmacist and textbooks respectively as a source of information in practicing self-medication. Most of respondents practiced self-medication for themselves (57.9%) and for both; themselves and their family members (45%). Some level of awareness was reported among non-practiced self-medication students; 60% of them were afraid from risk of adverse reaction of drugs. Conclusion: Self-medication is broadly practiced among medical students in this College. Therefore, there is need to improve the medical educational program to raise the awareness level regarding the advantage and disadvantages of self-medication to ensure safe usage of drugs.

Background Re-auditing mortality of inpatient psychiatric service for a span of time extending to 14 years is scarce in low-resource countries. We are reporting a 5-year mortality study to complete an audit cycle with a previous 9-year mortality research published a few years ago. It serves to improve the standard of care in low-resource settings. Results Out of a total of 7340 (4890 men and 2450 women) admissions to all national psychiatric hospitals in Khartoum over a 5-year period, 36 (23 men and 13 women) patients died while receiving inpatient psychiatric treatment. The mortality rate in this sample was 4.9 (4.7 for men and 5.3 for women). Among all deaths, 30.6% were diagnosed with schizophrenia, while mania constituted 25%, major depression 15% and organic psychosis 11.3%, and 11.1% were considered to be due to alcohol- and/or drug-related disorders. There was no single case of unnatural death in this sample. Twenty patients (55.6%) died following circulatory failure (sudden death), four (11.1%) as a result of an infection, three (8.3%) from renal failure, two (5.6%) secondarily to NMS, two (5.6%) from diabetic complications and four patients as a result of ECT, GIT bleeding, ischaemic heart disease and alcohol complications. Conclusion Circulatory failure and infection are the main causes of death in psychiatric hospitals in Sudan, calling for an intense investigation to resolve these preventable problems.

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Background: the difference in expression of type IV collagen in borderline tumors and ovarian carcinomas has been studied, but the association with adhesion molecules like CD44 have not gain enough interest. Objectives: The purpose of this study is to assess the expression of CD44v6 and type IV collagen status in borderline tumors and invasive ovarian carcinomas and the correlation between them to define the role of these molecules in tumor invasion and metastasis. Type of the study: A cross sectional study Methods: The study included a total of (101) formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded ovarian tissue blocks; of which (19) cases were borderline tumors and (82) cases were overt ovarian carcinomas. Sections from each block were immunohistochemically stained for CD44v6 and type IV collagen. Results: CD44v6 was significantly correlated with FIGO stage of borderline tumors (p=0.001) and ovarian carcinoma (<0.001) and with histological grade of ovarian carcinomas (p=0.004). There was significantly higher expression of type IV collagen in borderline tumors compared to invasive carcinoma(p<0.001) this significance was also seen in correlation to age, stage and grade of the invasive carcinoma, no significant differences in other clinicopathological features were found. There was negative correlation between CD44 v6 & type IV collagen which was statistically significance (P<0.05) in carcinoma but not in borderline tumors. Conclusions: Our data suggest that observed inverse correlation of type IV collagen expression with CD44v6 positivity in surface epithelial tumors indicates that these molecules may cooperate in the invasion and progression of ovarian carcinomas.