Commentary
Singapore’s experience in managing the COVID-19 pandemic: Key lessons from the ground
In the early days of the pandemic when information on COVID-19 infection was lacking, all COVID-19 positive patients were admitted into acute hospitals for...
Review Article
Cardiovascular effects of COVID-19 in children
The global coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic was caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). While the respiratory system is the...
Original Article
Long COVID prevalence, risk factors and impact of vaccination in the paediatric population: A survey study in Singapore
On 5 May 2023, more than 3 years since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared that COVID-19 no...
Editorial
COVID-19: The virus, vaccine and paediatric heart
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has resulted in much morbidity and mortality around the world. The development of vaccines has cushioned the effect...
Review Article
Consensus statement on Singapore perinatal mental health guidelines on depression and anxiety
Perinatal mental health conditions have been recognised as a key area of focus by the World Health Organization, with the new guide published in...
Editorial
Perinatal mental health in Singapore: Implementation opportunities and relevance of gender-carer roles in screening
In this issue of the Annals, the consensus statement on perinatal mental health by Chen et al. covers the handling of depression and anxiety...
Editorial
Impact of pre-existing depression on severe COVID-19 outcomes
The outbreak of the COVID-19 virus in 2019 had rapidly developed into a global pandemic, causing more than 6.8 million deaths and impacting the...
Letter to the Editor
Investigating the stressors and coping mechanisms of students in medical school: A qualitative study
Dear Editor,
Medical school can be a stressful experience for students, with burnout being increasingly common.1 Stressors in medical education include a heavy academic workload,...
Letter to the Editor
Healthcare worker job burnout, anxiety and depression: A one-year comparison during COVID-19 in Singapore
Dear Editor,
The mental health of our healthcare workforce has never been as scrutinised as it has the last three years since the COVID-19 pandemic....
Original Article
Risk and protective factors of mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic: A cross-sectional study in Singapore
The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted people’s well-being globally.1 Individuals faced several stressors during the pandemic, including fear of contracting the disease, experiencing severe...
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
Self-esteem and positive body image to overcome female sexual dysfunction
Human sexuality is arguably one of the main pillars of health, like nutrition and sleep. Improvements in diagnostic and therapeutic biotechnologies have enabled focus...
Letter to the Editor
Delayed treatment with nirmatrelvir/ritonavir could remain effective in patients with Omicron BA2.2 variant of COVID-19
Dear Editor,
In late February 2022, the Omicron BA.2.2 subvariant drove the outbreak of COVID-19 and rapidly spread through many parts of the world. Omicron-infected...
Letter to the Editor
Rash characteristics of paediatric patients with COVID-19 in Singapore
Dear Editor,
Children with COVID-19 infection can present with a variable spectrum of clinical manifestations, and sometimes mucocutaneous manifestations can be the only manifestation of...
Original Article
Immune and coagulation profiles in 3 adults with multisystem inflammatory syndrome
A spectrum of immune dysregulation has been described following SARS-CoV-2 infections—from the cytokine storm in the acute phase, to hyperinflammatory syndromes that occur after...
Original Article
Clinical efficacy and long-term immunogenicity of an early triple dose regimen of SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccination in cancer patients
The spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus has led to the ongoing worldwide COVID-19 pandemic. Initial studies have reported an increased vulnerability of patients with...
Editorial
Early COVID-19 booster is beneficial in cancer patients
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection and its corresponding coronavirus disease (COVID-19) was first reported as a cluster of pneumonia cases in...
Letter to the Editor
A strategy to make COVID-19 vaccination more accessible to the elderly
Dear Editor,
Singapore embarked on the COVID-19 National Vaccination Programme in early 2021. The main modality employed to achieve the mass vaccinations has been the...
Review Article
The Omicron-transformer: Rise of the subvariants in the age of vaccines
The emergence and evolution of SARS-CoV-2 have been publicly tracked in unprecedented detail through a combination of intensive genomic sequencing and open-access sharing of...
Original Article
Multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children in Singapore
While children infected with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) resulting in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) have milder manifestations compared to adults,1,2 a...
Editorial
Multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children: A unique manifestation of COVID-19
During the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, children have been relatively spared from the severe symptomatic infection affecting adults, particularly the elderly and those...
Review Article
Managing adult asthma during the COVID-19 pandemic: A 2022 review and current recommendations
Asthma is the most prevalent chronic respiratory disease, estimated to affect more than 300 million people worldwide.1 First recognised in December 2019, the coronavirus...
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...
Editorial
The impact of COVID-19 pandemic on loss and grief
As of 17 October 2022, the COVID-19 pandemic has claimed more than 6.5 million lives globally, with 1,639 deaths reported in Singapore.1 With numerous...
Letter to the Editor
Prevalence of perceived weight-based stigmatisation in a multiethnic Asian population
Dear Editor,
People with obesity contend with obesity-related stigmas, in addition to health complications.1 In contrast to the West, literature documenting the prevalence of such...
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...
Letter to the Editor
Teaching and learning during the COVID-19 pandemic: Perspectives of medical students in Singapore
Dear Editor,
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has resulted in many changes to medical education, including the site and mode of teaching, conducting of...
Letter to the Editor
Screening for somatisation in an Asian children’s hospital emergency setting
Dear Editor,
In recent years, self-harm is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality among adolescents in Singapore.1,2 This is just the tip of the...
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...
Letter to the Editor
Neuralgic amyotrophy in COVID-19 infection and after vaccination
Dear Editor,
Various neurological manifestations associated with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) have been described,1 conditions which left a significant proportion of patients with permanent disability....
Original Article
Epidemiological trends and outcomes of children with aural foreign bodies in Singapore
Aural foreign bodies (FBs) commonly present to the emergency department (ED) worldwide. Children represent the majority of the population, believed to be due to...
Original Article
Nutrition support practices for critically ill patients with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2: A multicentre observational study in Singapore
Within 3 weeks of the World Health Organization declaring the COVID-19 pandemic on 11 March 2020, the Society of Critical Care Medicine (SCCM) and...
Editorial
Challenges and considerations in delivering nutritional therapy in the ICU during COVID-19 pandemic
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has created unprecedented challenges for healthcare workers in Singapore and across the world. Providing clinical nutrition and metabolic care to...
Letter to the Editor
BNT162B2 COVID-19 mRNA vaccination did not promote substantial anti-syncytin-1 antibody production nor mRNA transfer to breast milk in an exploratory pilot study
Dear Editor,
Vaccine hesitancy still threatens global efforts to end the COVID-19 pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 and its emerging variants. Social media-driven “conspiracy theories”...
Commentary
COVID-19 vaccination acceptance of healthcare workers in Singapore
The Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic resulted in 511.0 million cases of confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection and almost 6.2 million deaths globally as of end...
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...
Letter to the Editor
Evaluation of a health screening protocol for recovered COVID-19 patients before “return-to-play” and strenuous physical activity
Dear Editor,
We conducted a prospective, single-centre cohort study to develop guidance for military personnel returning to strenuous activities following SARS-CoV-2 infection. The patients underwent...
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
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...
Letter to the Editor
Graves’ disease after COVID-19 vaccination
Dear Editor,
Case 1 was a 41-year-old man with a history of primary hyperthyroidism. At the time of diagnosis, thyroglobulin antibodies were elevated although no...
Letter to the Editor
Impact of COVID-19 infections among kidney transplant recipients
Dear Editor,
More than 2 years since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, cases continue to climb despite global efforts at viral control. This is...
Letter to the Editor
Paediatric living-donor liver and kidney transplantation during COVID-19
Dear Editor,
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has impacted global healthcare including paediatric solid organ transplantation (SOT). We report our experience of resuming paediatric...
Letter to the Editor
The evolution of severity of paediatric COVID-19 in Singapore: Vertical transmission and multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children
Dear Editor,
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) arrived in Singapore in January 2020 as imported cases, followed by local transmission predominantly involving dormitories, with later spread...
Original Article
Pericarditis and myocarditis after COVID-19 mRNA vaccination in a nationwide setting
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has resulted in much morbidity and mortality worldwide. The development of mRNA vaccines has heralded much hope in...
Original Article
The moderating effect of employment status on the relationship between lifetime major depressive disorder and positive mental health
Studies across the world have reported a high prevalence of mental disorders,1-3 highlighting that mental disorders remain one of the major causes of “non-fatal...
Editorial
The relationship between major depressive disorder and employment status
Major depressive disorder is associated with executive dysfunction that includes impairment in problem-solving and decision-making,1 as well as with occupational impairment.2 One of 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...
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...
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....
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
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...
Letter to the Editor
Stress among emergency medicine residents during the COVID-19 pandemic: A qualitative study
Dear Editor,
The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted medical education1,2 and distressed clinicians.3,4 Understanding the impact of this pandemic on emergency medicine (EM) residents’ experience of...
Letter to the Editor
Pressure injuries related to N95 respirator masks among healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic
Dear Editor,
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic outbreak, which started in 2019, has affected millions of patients globally.1 Singapore is not spared, being one...
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...
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...
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...
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....
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...
Editorial
The Annals: Welcoming the future of Medicine
What started as a cluster of cases of pneumonia in Wuhan, the capital city of China’s Hubei Province, in December 2019, has since evolved...
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
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...
Original Article
The Health-Related Quality of Life of Junior Doctors
It is widely reported that junior doctors experience a large amount of work-related stress and fatigue. This has detrimental effects both on the well-being...
Original Article
Where do People with Mental Disorders in Singapore go to for Help?
Not only are mental disorders prevalent in any country, it is also common that many of those with mental disorders are neither seeking nor...
Letter to the Editor
Plasma IP-10 could identify early lung disease in severe COVID-19 patients
Dear Editor,
The global pandemic of SARS-Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection has imposed tremendous strain on healthcare resources worldwide, as a significant proportion of patients require...
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
Adverse reactions and safety profile of the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines among Asian military personnel
The COVID-19 pandemic has led to significant changes in the way of life for many around the world.1,2 After more than a year, many...
Original Article
Factors reducing inappropriate attendances to emergency departments before and during the COVID-19 pandemic: A multicentre study
Since the first case of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was reported in China in late December 2019, the pandemic has spread throughout the world,...
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,...
Original Article
Safety and side effect profile of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccination among healthcare workers: A tertiary hospital experience in Singapore
The newly emerged coronavirus virus 2019 (COVID-19) disease was declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern by the World Health Organization (WHO) on...
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...
Letter to the Editor
The “Jeff Cut”: A simple innovation to minimise up-riding sleeves of protective gown
Personal protective equipment (PPE) including the N95 mask, face shield, cap, splash-resistant gown and gloves are worn by frontline healthcare workers for various duties...
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...
Commentary
ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction in post-COVID-19 patients: A case series
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been associated with thromboembolic phenomenon in the early phase of disease. Growing evidence suggests a hypercoagulable state as well...
Original Article
Impact of unemployment on mental disorders, physical health and quality of life: Findings from the Singapore Mental Health Study
Several reviews and meta-analyses have established an association between unemployment and psychological distress. This relationship between unemployment and mental health is complex and likely...
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
Evaluation of the QIAstat-Dx Respiratory SARS-CoV-2 Panel for early diagnosis of COVID-19
An effective response to the SARS-CoV-2 that has caused the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic1 requires rapid and accurate diagnostic testing. We evaluate the...
Letter to the Editor
Antibiotic stewardship algorithm to rationalise antibiotic use among hospitalised COVID-19 patients
As presentation of COVID-19 may mimic that of bacterial pneumonia, antibiotics are often prescribed. Concerns regarding overuse of antibiotics are now being raised particularly...
Letter to the Editor
Attendance for ischaemic stroke before and during COVID-19 lockdown in Singapore
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak has impacted healthcare systems worldwide. Globally, visits to the emergency department have fallen as much as 25% during...
Letter to the Editor
Radiological changes on chest CT following COVID-19 infection
COVID-19 infection is associated with high rates of hospitalisation and mortality, placing healthcare systems under strain. There are many reports regarding the non-contrast-enhanced high-resolution...
Letter to the Editor
Stress and resilience of paediatric healthcare workers during COVID-19
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has caused multiple changes in healthcare systems as governments implement measures to boost acute services. Healthcare workers (HCWs)...
Review Article
Severe COVID-19 and coagulopathy: A systematic review and meta-analysis
Manifestations of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) span a wide clinical spectrum, from asymptomatic carriers to critical illness with a wide range of complications....
Editorial
Estimating the impact of COVID-19-induced coagulopathy
The current coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has exerted significant strain on healthcare worldwide. Mostly asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic, COVID-19 caused by SARS-CoV-2 is...
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...
Commentary
Optimum early orthopaedic surgery in COVID-19 patients
Multiple guidelines have been established regarding the management of COVID-19 patients. However, there remains a paucity regarding specific guidelines on the optimal timing for...
Original Article
Vulnerability to rumours during the COVID-19 pandemic in Singapore
The global outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has come with increased psychological burden. In several meta-analyses, depression and anxiety symptoms have been found...
Original Article
Behavioural changes during the COVID-19 pandemic: Results of a nationwide survey in Singapore
In response to the global outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), Singapore undertook a multipronged approach to contain the pandemic. Of note, when community...
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...
Review Article
Living with COVID-19: The road ahead
The COVID-19 pandemic has made an unprecedented impact on global morbidity, mortality and healthcare measures to contain the infection.1 Multiple waves of infections in...
Editorial
The Novel Coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) Pandemic
The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic began in early December in Wuhan, the 7th most populous city in Mainland China, and...
Review Article
Precautions When Providing Dental Care During Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Pandemic
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is caused by novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and was first reported to the World Health Organization...
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...
Letter to the Editor
Cross-reaction of Sera from COVID-19 Patients with SARS-CoV Assays
SARS-CoV-2 is a new zoonotic coronavirus (CoV) that emerged in Wuhan, China, which was first reported to the World Health Organization (WHO) on 31...
Review Article
COVID-19 and Singapore: From Early Response to Circuit Breaker
The COVID-19 pandemic first broke out in Wuhan, China, in December 2019, where a cluster of pneumonia cases was reported and the novel coronavirus...
Original Article
Comparative Analysis of Symptomatic and Asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 Infection in Children
Singapore confirmed its first case of COVID-19 on 23 January 2020 in a Chinese national from Wuhan, and its first paediatric case on February...
Review Article
Managing a Renal Transplant Programme During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Practical Experience from a Singapore Transplant Centre
As infrastructure and policies were being put in place to combat COVID-19, we recognised that specialty-specific policies and protocols had to be drawn up...
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...
Original Article
Pregnancy Outcomes in COVID-19: A Prospective Cohort Study in Singapore
Since the first cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in pregnancy were described, significant concerns have been raised about the potentially increased susceptibility of...
Review Article
Obesity in COVID-19: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an ongoing global pandemic infection by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). It is established that increasing...
Letter to the Editor
Resuming otolaryngology services following a COVID-19 lockdown in Singapore
When the COVID-19 outbreak first occurred, we tweaked our department workflows to cope with the various demands of our practice and the pandemic. When...
Letter to the Editor
COVID-19: Lessons from Thailand
The COVID-19 pandemic has massively disrupted the social and economy of many countries. Thailand has been successful in controlling the spread of the disease...
Commentary
Videoconsultation to overcome barriers during COVID-19
Since February 2020, Government Restructured Hospitals in Singapore began deferring non-urgent outpatient appointments. This aimed to facilitate physical distancing and reallocate healthcare resources to...
Review Article
Teleophthalmology and its evolving role in a COVID-19 pandemic: A scoping review
The World Health Organization declared coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) a Public Health Emergency of International Concern on 30 January 2020. To control the outbreak,...
Review Article
Impact of cardiovascular diseases on severity of COVID-19 patients: A systematic review
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has spread rapidly from China to other countries around the world, with the World Health Organization characterising it as a...
Letter to the Editor
Positive RT-PCR detected in patients recovered from COVID-19
Positive real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) for SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acid following 2 consecutive negative RT-PCR tests have been reported in China and Korea....
Letter to the Editor
Cerebral venous thrombosis in a patient with mild COVID-19 infection
Emerging reports suggest venous and arterial thromboembolic diseases can complicate recovery from COVID-19. Postulated mechanisms include hypercoagulability, hypoxia, immobilisation, excessive inflammation and diffuse intravascular...
Letter to the Editor
Decrease in emergency department attendances during COVID-19 especially in school-going children
Health-seeking behaviour varies during a pandemic. Early reports have suggested reduced attendances at emergency departments (EDs), especially in paediatric patients and in patients with...
Original Article
Paediatric emergency department attendances during COVID-19 and SARS in Singapore
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) on 11 March 2020, with over 110 million cumulative cases...
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...
Original Article
Rapid Progression to Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome: Review of Current Understanding of Critical Illness from Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Infection
In this report, we describe a patient who developed acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) with rapid clinical deterioration. Unfortunately, not much is known about...