Introduction: Medical students encounter multiple psychological changes in the transformation from young insecure students to efficient physicians. They have to balance the personal, social and academic dimention in a busy schedule. So, this study aimed to find out the prevalence of depression among medical students of a medical college. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among medical students of a medical college from 2 May 2017 to 16 October 2017 after taking ethical approval from the Departmental Research Unit (Reference number: Psy/73/078/079). Students participated voluntarily in the study from first to fourth year and written informed consent was taken. Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale-42 scale was filled by the students taking their own time and privacy to assess their depression, anxiety and stress. Convenience sampling was done. Point estimate and 95% Confidence Interval were calculated. Results: Among 302 medical students, 86 (28.47%) (23.38-33.56, 95% Confidence Interval) had depression. A total of 31 (36.04%) had mild, 31 (36.04%) had moderate, 12 (13.95%) had severe and 12 (13.95%) had extremely severe depression. Among them 55 (63.95%) were males and 31 (36.04%) were females. Conclusions: The prevalence of depression among medical students was similar to the other studies conducted in similar settings. Studies concerning the subjective well-being of medical students should be continued and strategic plans and programs should be conducted to help the students manage their stress and depressive symptoms right from the time they join the medical school and continued till they finish the course.

<p><strong>Background:</strong> The conventional entry point for the S1 pedicle screw insertion has been described as ‘at the base of and lateral to the superior S1 superior facet’. However, many orthopaedic surgeons complain that this technique is extremely demanding and is faced with many challenges in execution. Therefore, alternative entry points and modifications of existing techniques are explored for a greater convenience.</p><p><strong>Methods</strong>: We conducted a survey amongst 136 spine surgeons on the technical difficulties faced during insertion of the S1 pedicle screw. We also classified the S1 pedicles based by measuring their geometric parameters on 100 random computed tomography (CT) images.</p><p><strong>Results</strong>: The S1 pedicle entry technique was considered to be the most difficult and challenging by the orthopaedic surgeons in our survey due to an inadequate medial angulation due to paraspinal muscle mass tension and an overhanging iliac crest. This could be explained by the hourglass shaped pedicle (type 3) with a desired medial angle more 50 degrees (type III) observed as the most common S1 pedicle in the study population. To overcome this limitation, most of them preferred a tri-corticate approach.</p><p><strong>Conclusions</strong>: A more lateral entry point and a longer screw might be considered as solutions for a better and safer S1 pedicle entry. Also, the use of pre-operative CT can be considered to visualize the type of S1 pedicle and hence, decide on the most appropriate technique of screw insertion.</p><p><strong> </strong></p>

Introduction: Depression is a common mental health problem among soldiers worldwide. Depression decreases the efficiency and productivity of the soldiers. The objective of this research is to find out the prevalence of depression among armed police force soldiers serving in a police headquarter. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was done on a total of 314 soldiers serving in the eastern regional armed police force headquarters of Nepal from January 15, 2017 to June 14, 2017 after receiving ethical clearance was taken from the Institutional Review Committee (Reference number: 140/073/074-IRC). Convenience sampling was done. Beck Depression Inventory was used to assess the prevalence of depression. Data were collected and entered in the Statistical Package for the Social Science version 15.0. which was used for data analysis. Point estimate at 95% Confidence Interval was calculated along with frequency and percentage for binary data. Results: Among 314 soldiers, 133 (42.36%) (36.89-47.83 at a 95% Confidence Interval) soldiers had depression where, 47 (14.97%) had mild mood disturbance, 33 (10.51%) had borderline depression, 40 (12.74%) had moderate depression, 10 (3.18%) had severe depression and 3 (0.96%) had extreme depression. Conclusions: The prevalence of depression in our study was lower when compared to other studies conducted in similar settings.