Background: The effective management of patients diagnosed with both Diabetes as well as Hypertension is linked with administration of efficacious pharmacological therapy as well as improvement in adherence through counseling and other strategies. Being a part of primary healthcare team, community pharmacists can effectively provide patient care for chronic disease management. The objective of the study was to evaluate the impact of pharmacist counseling on blood pressure and blood glucose control among patients having both hypertension and diabetes attending community pharmacies in Pakistan.Method: A randomized, controlled, single-blind, pre-post-intervention study design was used. The respondents included patients diagnosed with diabetes mellitus (Type I or II) and hypertension visiting community pharmacies to purchase their regular medicine. A simple random sampling technique using the lottery method was used to select community pharmacies in groups A (intervention, n = 4) and group B (control, n = 4). The total number of patients was 40 in each group, while estimating a dropout rate of 25%. The patients in the intervention group received special counseling. Blood pressure and blood glucose were checked after every 15 days for 6 months. Prevalidated tools such as the hypertension knowledge level scale, the diabetes knowledge questionnaire 24, and a brief medication questionnaire was used. Data were coded and analyzed using SPSS 21. Wilcoxon test (p < 0.05) was used to compare pre-post intervention knowledge regarding the disease, while the Mann-Whitney test (p < 0.05) was used to find differences in medication adherence among control and intervention groups.Results: A significant improvement in mean knowledge scores of patients with diabetes (16.02 ±2.93 vs. 19.97 ±2.66) and hypertension (15.60 ±3.33 vs. 18.35 ±2.31) in the intervention group receiving counseling for 6 months than control group (p < 0.05) was noted. Furthermore, the fasting blood glucose levels (8.25 ±1.45) and systolic BP (130.10 ±6.89) were significantly controlled after 6 months in the intervention group.Conclusion: The current study results concluded that community pharmacists’ counselling has a positive impact on blood glucose and blood pressure management among patients suffering with both diabetes and hypertension.

Background Access to maternal healthcare services is an essential pre-requisite for improving women’s health. However, due to poor access and underutilization, women in developing countries remain vulnerable to various complications. Evaluation of quality maternal healthcare services in any country must include the opinions of the women being as a key stakeholder utilizing maternal healthcare services. Aim The present study was designed to evaluate the experiences, perceptions and expectations of pre-birth and post-birth women regarding utilization and delivery of maternal healthcare services in Pakistan. Methodology A qualitative study design was used. Snow ball sampling technique was adopted to identify the respondents. Interviews were conducted using semi-structures interview guide till saturation point was achieved. The sample size at saturation point for different respondents was: pre-birth women (n = 9) and post-birth women (n = 9). All interviews were recorded after getting permission from the respondents. The interviews were transcribed verbatim and were then subjected to thematic analysis. Results The age group for the pre-birth respondents was 23–43 years while for post-birth group it was 23–32 years. Most of the respondents from both groups were from urban setting. Most of them were either first time pregnant or were having experience of one pregnancy. Thematic analysis of the interviews yielded different themes and sub-themes including birth experience, maternal treatment pathway, identified barriers for quality maternal care, involvement in healthcare decision-making, impact of Covid 19, payment dynamics, role of digital health and recommendations for improving maternal care services. Conclusion The results of the present study concluded that the overall quality of the maternal care services provided in Pakistan was not up to the mark. High rate of caesarian section was prevalent. Majority of the women were not involved in the decision-making process or provided with any birth plan or counselling regarding birth signs, family planning, danger and birth signs. The cost of maternal care was quite high and not affordable for all.

Mental health in children and young people is a global public health concern. With the increasing prevalence of mental illnesses and a significant treatment gap, Mental Health in children and adolescents is now a global public health concern. The development and extensive research in the field of Artificial Intelligence(AI) for healthcare has been quite promising. The emergence of AI based alternatives could be a viable solution for reducing mental health treatment gap for people belonging to low and middle income countries. Development of Chatbots like ChatGPT which is trained, using large amount of textual data from the internet, can revolutionize child and adolescent mental healthcare by acting as an effective assisting tool but a lot of caution is required for its safe and responsible use in times to come. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.39.4.8118 How to cite this: Imran N, Hashmi A, Imran A. Chat-GPT: Opportunities and Challenges in Child Mental Healthcare. Pak J Med Sci. 2023;39(4):---------. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.39.4.8118 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Most of the medical and pharmacy students will work as health professionals after graduation and will have more opportunities to interact with patients. Therefore, they should possess adequate health literacy levels to enhance the health literacy of the patients.Objective: The present study was designed to assess functional health literacy among undergraduate Pharm.D students studying at Hamdard University, Islamabad, Pakistan. Methodology:A descriptive cross-sectional study design was used. A pre-validated tool S. Tofhla was self-administered to a sample of 400 Pharm.D students of Hamdard University, Islamabad, Pakistan. After data collection, data was cleaned coded and entered in SPSS version 21.0. Descriptive statistics comprising of frequency and percentages was calculated. The non-parametric tests including Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Walis (p≥0.05) were performed to find out the difference among different variables. Results:The results highlighted that female students had higher scores of functional health literacy (29.03, ±4.14). Undergraduate students living in urban settings (28.69, ±4.66) had high functional health literacy scores than students living in rural areas (26.46, ±6.48). Students having English language as medium of instruction during their schooling had better scores (28.53, ±5.11) than students having Urdu language as medium of instruction in high school. Conclusion:The results of the present study concluded that the level of functional health literacy among undergraduate pharmacy students was adequate. High level of health literacy is required to assist pharmacists to manage self-care activities, and the care of their patients, future research should be designed to explore whether improved health literacy amongst pharmacists transforms into improved self-care and better patient outcomes.

Background: Antidepressant therapy is the most adopted treatment option for depression. The evaluation of cognitive effects related to antidepressant drug use is important for better selection of antidepressant drugs that leads to improved cognitive performance and patient health related quality of life. Aim: The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effects of antidepressant drugs on cognition and memory among patients of depression in Pakistan. Method: A descriptive cross-sectional study design was used. A pre-validated data collection tool Mini Mental State Examination was used. The sample size was calculated to be 382 with 95% confi dence interval and 5% level of error. The data was cleaned, coded and analyzed statistically using spss 21. Chi-Square test (p ≥ 0.05) was used to fi nd association among different variables. Results: The results showed that out of 382 respondents, 7.3% (n=28) were being prescribed amytryptyline and among them 46% (n=13) had questionably signifi cant cognitive impairment and 53% (n=15) had mild cognitive impairment. On the other hand out of 23% (n=89) patients on escitalopram monotherapy, 85% (n=76) had impairment of questionably signifi cant impairment and only 13.4% (n=12) had mild impairment. Area of residence and medication therapy were signifi cant variables (p<0.05) that can affect cognition and memory among patients of depression. Conclusion: The results of present study concluded cognitive impairment of questionably signifi cant nature among patients of depression in Pakistan. For the better management of depression, it is recommended that anti-depressant drug therapy should be tailored according to individual patient requirements.