Background Dental pain exerts a considerable impact on the psychosocial well‐being of children; reliable management of pain depends on the ability to assess pain intensity. Aim To validate and compare a new memojis pain assessment scale with the Faces Pain Scale—Revised (FPS‐R) and Wong–Baker FACES Pain Rating Scale (WBFPS) in assessing dental pain experienced by children. Design Two hundred and fifty healthy children aged 5–9 years without any past dental experience and requiring local anaesthesia (LA) administration were recruited. Three different scales [FPS‐R, WBFPS and Memojis Pain Scale (MPS)] were applied to assess the children's pain during LA administration. The preferences of each child based on the ease of understanding the faces were recorded. Results Pearson correlation test was performed to determine the correlation between MPS with WBFPS and MPS with FPS‐R. A strong correlation was seen when comparing MPS with WBFPS (r = .966; p < .001) and MPS with FPS‐R (r = .969; p < .001), and 81.6% of the children preferred MPS. Conclusion The Memojis Pain Scale was an effective pain assessment tool. It can be employed as an alternative scale for pain assessment in children.

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Aim: The present study was planned to clinically determine the effectiveness of colchicine as a monotherapy in oral submucous fibrosis (OSMF) patients. Materials and Methods: Thirty OSMF patients were enrolled in the study and randomly divided into two groups by permuted-block randomization. Group A: Patients were treated with 0.5 mg colchicine (Goutnil) tablets twice daily for 3 months. Whereas, in Group B, intralesional injection of dexamethasone 2 mL, hyaluronidase 1,500 IU with 2 mL lignocaine HCl biweekly for 4–6 weeks were given. For all the individuals, baseline parameters like mouth opening, buccal mucosal flexibility, burning sensation, and tongue protrusion were recorded and reassessment was done at 1, 3, and 6 months followed by statistical analysis. Results: A significant decrease in the Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) score for severity of burning sensation was observed in Group A whereas mouth opening and tongue protrusion were higher in Group B patients. Statistically significant differences in the buccal mucosal flexibility were appreciable in the intragroup comparisons of both the groups from baseline to 6-month follow-up. Conclusion : Colchicine can be suggested as an adjuvant drug for reducing the burning sensation for the OSMF patients in whom steroids are contraindicated.

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Background: Depression is one among the disorders that have always been targeted by researchers in India. In South India the prevalence is 15.1%. Large number of studies has been published from India revealing various aspects of this commonly prevalent disorder, but there is limited evidence for the non-adherence to anti depressants in India. Aim: To assess the reasons contributing for non adherence in patients with depression. Method: This is a prospective, observational study, conducted in a tertiary care teaching hospital, Guntur. Medication adherence was assessed using the eight-item Morisky Medication Adherence Scale (MMAS-8) and a self administered questionnaire during the period of 1st February 2015 to 31st July 2015(i.e. 6months). Results: A total of 60 patients met the inclusion criteria; 68.3% are females and 31.6% are males. Among those, 3 (5%) are highly adherent, 17 (28.33%) are moderately adherent and 40 (66.67%) are poorly adherent. Conclusion: The overall Non adherence rate is found to be high in the study. The results presented suggest that pharmacist instructions may improve adherence in depression. Clinical pharmacist in this regard has a major role to play in uplifting and improving the quality of life of the patient.