Original Article
Impact of COVID-19 on mental health and social service provision in Singapore: Learnings from a descriptive mixed-methods study for future resource planning
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was declared a global health emergency by the World Health Organization in January 2020.1 Singapore reported its first case of...
Editorial
Impact of COVID-19 on mental health and healthcare service delivery
The COVID-19 pandemic has claimed more than 6.8 million lives globally.2 While there is yet a cure for the disease, vaccines are now available...
Review Article
Exploring loss and grief during the COVID-19 pandemic: A scoping review of qualitative studies
As of mid October 2022, the World Health Organization recorded that more than 620 million people worldwide have been infected by SARS-CoV-2, the virus...
Letter to the Editor
Employers’ attitudes towards employing people with mental health conditions
Dear Editor,
The advantages of employment for young people with mental health conditions (PMHC) are well known and documented,1 but many remain unemployed. Besides offering...
Original Article
Prevalence of burnout among healthcare professionals in Singapore
Burnout was first described in 1974 by Herbert Freudenberger, where he discussed the concept based on physical signs, behavioural indicators, judgment, emotional factors, and...
Editorial
Bridging electroconvulsive therapy in schizophrenia with cognition and quality of life
Schizophrenia is one of the most debilitating severe mental illnesses with significant impact,1 irrespective of culture or socioeconomic class.2 Over the decades, antipsychotic medication...
Original Article
Prevalence and correlates of psychological distress and coronavirus anxiety among hospital essential services workers in Singapore
The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has affected almost all geographies in the world since 2020. Many countries have imposed strict isolation measures to contain...
Review Article
Use of Atypical Neuroleptics in a State Mental Institute
Schizophrenia is the most severe of all mental disorders and affects about 1% of the population. The main disturbances of schizophrenia comprise positive symptoms,...
Review Article
Somatisation among Asian Refugees and Immigrants as a Culturally-shaped Illness Behaviour
During the past two decades, close to one million Southeast Asian refugees of war have resettled in North America. Together with the already significant...
Others
How the Mental Hospital was Renamed Woodbridge Hospital in 1951
In the 1920s the government embarked on an ambitious programme to build hospitals, staffed largely by graduates of the King Edward College of Medicine....
Others
Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor Discontinuation Symptoms
Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are a new class of antidepressants which are effective, better tolerated with less side effects and more specific in...
Review Article
Under-diagnosed Psychiatric Syndrome II: Pathologic Skin Picking
Pathologic skin picking may be defined as the habitual picking of skin lesions, which when chronic and extensive, can lead to significant distress, dysfunction...
Original Article
A Clinical Study of Seven Cases of Trichotillomania in Singapore
Trichotillomania was first described by a French dermatologist Hallopeau (1889) of a young man who pulled out his hair in tufts. The word trichotillomania...
Review Article
Under-diagnosed Psychiatric Syndrome I: Trichotillomania
Trichotillomania (TTM) is a chronic psychiatric condition characterised by uncontrollable, self-inflicted, hair pulling, resulting in noticeable hair loss. First described by Hallopeau a century...
Others
Psychological Trauma, Physical Health and Somatisation
Trauma does not respect persons or culture. While Singapore is fortunate to have been spared large-scale disaster and war for decades, it has nevertheless...
Others
Medical Leave Granted to Psychiatric Inpatients—A One-year Retrospective Review
The Department of Psychological Medicine, National University Hospital (NUH) has a 26-bedded inpatient unit. This study retrospectively examines the medical leave granted to all...
Original Article
Mental Health Literacy in Singapore: A Comparative Survey of Psychiatrists and Primary Health Professionals
The management of mental health disorders within a nation requires a system of care extending from the primary health care setting to tertiary and...
Others
Identification of Genes for Schizophrenia Susceptibility
Schizophrenia, described as “the most human of all diseases,” affects about 0.5 % to 1% of the population and typically develops in the early...
Others
Human Genetic Susceptibility to Tuberculosis
The World Health Organization has declared that the recent resurgence of tuberculosis (TB) is a global emergency. Southeast Asia, which is seeing the greatest...
Others
Cardiovascular Disease: Genes and Public Health
The excitement surrounding the Human Genome Project and its impending completion has raised expectations of the possibilities for genetics in common disease. It is...
Others
Muscle Dysmorphia in a Young Chinese Male
In 1891, Morselli described “dysmorphophobia” in 78 patients who were severely miserable, preoccupied and distressed by perceived deformities. The word “dysmorphia” in Greek means...
Original Article
Contrasting Clozapine Prescribing Patterns in the East and West?
Schizophrenia is a severe mental illness which causes enormous suffering, impaired social and occupational functioning, as well as higher mortality among the sufferers. The...
Review Article
Cardiac Effects of Psychotropic Drugs
The incidence of mortality is higher among psychiatric patients than among the general population and the cause of which may be the psychiatric disorder...
Original Article
Men Who Commit Rape in Singapore
Of all the sexual crimes committed, rape stands out as one of the most serious forms of sexual assault, yet there is a general...
Original Article
Psychiatric Illness, Personality Traits and the Irritable Bowel Syndrome
Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is the most common functional gastrointestinal disorder seen by gastroenterologists and has been found to account for 50% of referrals...
Others
Clinical Update on Occupational Asthma
Occupational asthma is the most common occupational respiratory disease in the United Kingdom and also in Singapore. Recent estimates of the proportion of adult...
Review Article
Behavioural Disorders in Childhood: A Singapore Perspective
A review of five Western epidemiological studies of children aged 6 to 11 years revealed an average prevalence of 25% for psychiatric disorder (ranging...
Others
Case Report: Catheter-Related Epidural Abscess
Epidural abscess complicating epidural catheterisation was first reported in 1974. Two recent studies indicated a local infection incidence of epidural catheters of 4.3% to...
Original Article
The Views of Mental Health Professionals Towards Psychotherapy—A Singapore Survey
There is a trend in Asia towards a greater application of psychotherapeutic approaches in multidisciplinary settings to emotional and behavioural disturbances. The inaugural issue...
Original Article
Pilot Study to Assess the Viability of a Rape Trauma Syndrome Questionnaire
In their 1974 study, Burgess and Holmstrom1 interviewed a heterogeneous sample of 92 adult females admitted between 1972 and 1973 to the emergency ward...
Original Article
Thyroid Dysfunction in Chronic Schizophrenia Within a State Psychiatric Hospital
Thyroid dysfunction can give rise to various psychiatric symptoms. While there is a persistent interest in the role of thyroid axis in affective disorders,...
Commentary
Mental Disorders and Public Safety of the Community at Large—Does the Tarasoff Principle Apply in Singapore?
In the course of their work, psychiatrists treat patients who, because of their mental disorders, may pose a danger to themselves and/or to others....
Review Article
An Asian Perspective to the Problem of Osteoporosis
Osteoporosis is regarded as an important public health problem in many Caucasian populations. Much of the research on epidemiology, diagnosis, treatment, genetic and molecular...
Review Article
Late-life Depression: Current Issues and New Challenges
Depression in late life (>60 years old) is one of the most common and treatable psychiatric disorders in the elderly. It not only causes...
Letter to the Editor
Preventing Youth Suicide
This letter is in reference to Dr Ung’s article published in the Annals which investigated youth suicide and parasuicide in Singapore. The study of...
Review Article
Adolescent Health Education Programmes: Theoretical Principles in Design and Delivery
Over the past three decades, the patterns of health need in youth have changed. Psychosocial problems such as depression, substance abuse, eating disorders, sexually...
Review Article
Eating Disorders in Singapore: A Review
Anorexia nervosa, bulimia and binge-eating disorder are the three best described ‘eating disorders’. All three are predominantly disorders of women with the core symptoms...
Review Article
Youth Suicide and Parasuicide in Singapore
The World Health Organization defines suicide as an act with a fatal outcome that is deliberately initiated and performed by the person himself or...
Original Article
Five-Year Review of Adolescent Mental Health Usage in Singapore
The past 20 years have seen much growth in the knowledge of child and adolescent psychiatric practice. Research has provided an improved understanding in...
Original Article
Post-SARS Psychological Morbidity and Stigma Among General Practitioners and Traditional Chinese Medicine Practitioners in Singapore
Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is the first severe and readily transmissible new disease to emerge in the 21st century (WHO). The countries most...
Review Article
A Risk Reduction Approach for Schizophrenia: The Early Psychosis Intervention Programme
Schizophrenia is a serious mental disorder with a profound impact on patients, their caregivers and society. The Global Burden of Disease lists schizophrenia among...
Original Article
Interleukin-2 Levels in Chronic Schizophrenia Patients
Autoimmune processes have been implicated in the pathogenesis of schizophrenia. Several pieces of indirect evidence point towards a role of autoimmune processes in at...
Review Article
Using Natural STOP Growth Signals to Prevent Excessive Axial Elongation and the Development of Myopia
Myopia in humans results from an imbalance between the refractive power of the cornea and lens and the axial length of the eye, such...
Others
Abuse of Prescription Buprenorphine, Regulatory Controls and the Role of the Primary Physician
Buprenorphine is an opiate partial agonist that has been used for pain management, and in the past few years has been approved for the...
Original Article
Reducing Polypharmacy Through the Introduction of a Treatment Algorithm: Use of a Treatment Algorithm on the Impact on Polypharmacy
The use of 2 or more antipsychotic medications (polypharmacy) for an episode of psychosis is pervasive despite the lack of evidence-based data. It is...
Original Article
Socio-demographic Profile and Help-seeking Behaviour of Buprenorphine Abusers in Singapore
Opiate dependence is a major health and social concern in many countries across the world. The burden of disease is considerable, with surveys indicating...
Editorial
Medicalising the Treatment of Opioid Dependence
Traditionally the treatment of opioid dependence in Singapore has not been viewed as a public health problem, but rather as a social problem that...
Editorial
Age-related Macular Degeneration: An Emerging Challenge for Eye Care and Public Health Professionals in the Asia Pacific Region
Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a severe ocular disease characterised by progressive deterioration of the macula, the most sensitive central back portion of the...
Others
“The one” Annoying Patient
Schizophrenia – a mind torn asunder – is a difficult illness to live with, both for the patient as well as for the caregiver;...
Review Article
The Risk of Suicidality with Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors
The first antidepressants were discovered 50 years ago by chance. Monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs) and tricyclic antidepressants (TCAs) dominated the treatment of depression from...
Original Article
Clinical and Social Correlates of Duration of Untreated Psychosis in First-episode Psychosis Patients
First-episode studies of schizophrenia have reported that the longer the duration of untreated psychosis (DUP), the poorer the response to antipsychotic medication and treatment...
Commentary
The Media and Suicide
Suicide worldwide is estimated to represent 1.8% of the total global burden of disease in 1998, and 2.4% in countries with market and former...
Commentary
Performance Measures for Mental Healthcare in Singapore
Mental disorders are prevalent worldwide and while they are disabling and costly, they have not received that amount of attention and resources needed. A...
Original Article
Mental Health Professionals’ Perceived Barriers and Benefits, and Personal Concerns in Relation to Psychiatric Research
Epidemiological research has shown that mental disorders can result in considerable healthcare and other opportunity costs. There are some reports that have highlighted the...
Original Article
Pathways to Specialist Care in an Insomnia Clinic at a Psychiatric Hospital: A Comparative Analysis of Two Periods
The complaint of insomnia is common and patients generally either self-medicate and/or consult primary healthcare providers. Referrals to a specialist for further management largely...
Review Article
Behavioural Sleep Disorders in Children and Adolescents
Overall, children spend one-third to one-half of their life sleeping. Although sleep comprises such a significant portion of a child’s day, sleep disturbances are...
Review Article
Hypnotherapy for Sleep Disorders
Derived from ‘Hypnos’, the Greek God of sleep, the word hypnosis literally means sleep. Ironically, hypnosis is not a form of sleep but a...
Original Article
Sleep Disturbances in Singaporean Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a common childhood psychiatric disorder with various studies reporting prevalence rates of between 1.7% and 16%. The most...
Review Article
Retardation of Kidney Failure – Applying Principles to Practice
By 2010 there will be more than 2 million patients worldwide on maintenance dialysis, a 400% increase in 20 years.1 This increase, occurring predominantly...
Commentary
Neuropsychiatry – An Emerging Field
Neuropsychiatry can be described as the interface between neurology and psychiatry – the intersecting field of enquiry for both the brain and the mind....
Review Article
Twentieth Century Influenza Pandemics in Singapore
Tropical countries such as Singapore, although without well-defined influenza seasons, are also affected by influenza epidemics and pandemics. Twenty per cent of Singapore’s population...
Commentary
Providing Integrated Mental Health Services in the Singapore Primary Care Setting – the General Practitioner Psychiatric Programme Experience
Mental disorders are recognised as a major public health problem worldwide, and the management of mental health problems places an enormous burden on health...
Original Article
Prevalence and Correlates of Excessive Internet Use among Youth in Singapore
There has been an explosive growth of Internet usage worldwide and this is expected to continue with its use becoming an integral part of...
Commentary
The personal recovery movement in Singapore – past, present and future
Early psychiatric conceptions of successful mental health recovery traditionally focused on reducing or eradicating symptoms.1 The personal recovery movement of the early 1990s in...
Original Article
Impact of Depression on Health Related Quality of Life in Patients with Diabetes
Diabetes Mellitus (DM) is a serious chronic illness that imposes significant morbidity and mortality and has a major impact on the quality of life...
Letter to the Editor
Management of a Patient with Schizophrenia and Underlying Pituitary Macroadenoma
Hyperprolactinemia was found to be prevalent in a multi-centred study of 402 patients with schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder and schizophreniform disorder treated with conventional antipsychotics...
Original Article
Psychological Symptoms in People Presenting for Weight Management
Multiple factors contribute to the genesis and maintenance of obesity which is a difficult condition to treat and weight loss is often not maintained....
Editorial
Preventive Psychiatry
In medicine, measures that save the most lives and improved the quality of life of millions have largely been public health measures that in...
Original Article
Venous Thromboembolism at the National Healthcare Group, Singapore
Venous thromboembolism (VTE) is a potentially fatal disease which includes deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism (PE). About 30% of patients with VTE...
Editorial
Alzheimer’s disease–The Inexorable Epidemic
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common form of dementia which refers collectively to syndromes of progressive deterioration of memory along with other cognitive...
Original Article
Monthly Take-Home Methadone Maintenance Regime for Elderly Opium-Dependent Users in Singapore
The misuse of illicit opiates remains a global problem, placing a heavy burden on society. Literature on the effectiveness of opiate substitution pharmacotherapies in...
Review Article
Panic Attack and its Correlation with Acute Coronary Syndrome – More Than Just a Diagnosis of Exclusion
Acute coronary syndrome (ACS) is a life-threatening condition which benefits from prompt evaluation and proper treatment, such that it would be considered negligent for...
Letter to the Editor
Reply from Author: Is It Time to Revise the Definition of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder?
We would like to thank the author for suggesting that the definition of ADHD should be revised. This is an important consideration in the...
Letter to the Editor
Is It Time to Revise the Definition of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder?
I read with interest the article published in the Annals entitled “Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: Coping or Curing?”, which concluded that coping rather than...
Original Article
Socio-demographic Profile and Psychiatric Comorbidity of Subjects with Pathological Gambling
Gambling has been defined as a wager of any type of item or possession of value upon a game or event of uncertain outcome...
Original Article
Weight Gain in Asian Patients on Second-generation Antipsychotics
Weight gain is a serious side-effect with antipsychotic medication use. There is increasing evidence that with certain second-generation antipsychotics (SGA) weight gain liability is...
Review Article
Biomedical Strategies for Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) Prevention? A New Paradigm
The first 30 years of the human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) pandemic will be remembered by the way individuals, communities, nations and...
Original Article
Effectiveness of Assertive Community Management in Singapore
In Asia, various community programmes have been adopted and studied in several countries in an effort to promote de-institutionalisation, community psychiatric services and reduce...
Original Article
Height and Mental Health and Health Utility Among Ethnic Chinese in a Polyclinic Sample in Singapore
Several studies have found adult height predictive of mental health and emotional well-being. A study of Swedish conscripts demonstrated an inverse association between
height at...
Editorial
You Are Worth More Than What You Weigh: Preventing Eating Disorders
Times have changed. Maternal mortality rates at the start of the 1900s were around 1 in 100 live births in the best maternity institutions....
Original Article
An Analysis of Blinding Success in a Randomised Controlled Trial of Fish Oil Omega-3 Fatty Acids
There has been growing interest in the use of dietary supplementation to treat psychiatric disorders. In particular, supplementation of omega-3 fatty acids has been...
Commentary
Schizophrenia as a Lifelong Illness: Implications for Care
The management of schizophrenia has advanced considerably since the term was first coined in 1911, with Kraepelin’s early pessimism tempered by more recent evidence...
Commentary
Integrating mental healthcare in primary care in Singapore
Management of mental health conditions can be both resource-intensive and costly. The rigour of obtaining appointments and the long waiting time at tertiary hospitals,...
Commentary
Prehabilitation and Its Role in Geriatric Surgery
The population in Singapore is ageing rapidly. According to statistics, by 2030, 1 in 2 adults in Singapore will be >65 years old. As...
Editorial
Seasonal haze: Knowledge gaps and risk perception behaviours
The seasonal haze in Southeast Asia has been a recurrent concern whenever we enter the southwest monsoon season (June–September). This phenomenon, caused by agricultural...
Original Article
Dietary intake of persons with depressive and psychotic disorders in Singapore
Unhealthy diet is a modifiable risk factor in many health conditions, including mental disorders. Nutritional psychiatry is an emerging field that examines the role...
Editorial
Nutritional psychiatry: The next frontier in mental health treatment
The World Health Organization has envisioned for every human being’s fundamental right to be able to enjoy the highest attainable standard of health, even...
Letter to the Editor
Impact of COVID-19 on mental health and occupational burnout in a surgical unit in Singapore
In this study, we assessed the impact of COVID-19 on the psychological well-being and burnout among staff who manage critically ill general surgery and...
Letter to the Editor
A resuscitation course designed for a psychiatric hospital
It is challenging to maintain the resuscitation skills of doctors in a psychiatric hospital. Our study describes a resuscitation course designed specifically for the...
Original Article
Psychosocial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on paediatric healthcare workers
Early studies done in China during this COVID-19 pandemic have shown considerable mental health impact on healthcare workers (HCWs), especially those working on the...
Editorial
The impact of COVID-19 pandemic on global mental health: From the general public to healthcare workers
The COVID-19 pandemic began in late 2019 and was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) on 11 March 2020. To decrease...
Commentary
Autism Spectrum Disorder and COVID-19: Helping Caregivers Navigate the Pandemic
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has disrupted societies globally. As of 11 May 2020, 53 children have been infected with COVID-19 in Singapore...
Review Article
Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19): The Singapore Experience. A Review of the First Eight Months
Singapore reported its first imported case of COVID-19 on 23 January 20201 and its first COVID-19 deaths on 21 March 2020.2 The WHO declared...
Commentary
Mental Health Strategies to Combat the Psychological Impact of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Beyond Paranoia and Panic
On 30 January 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) an international public health emergency after the...