Friday I awoke feeling really fed
up. It was with some reluctance that I got out of bed and started a day that
would see me once more in Abu Dhabi at the end of it. The week had already been
a long one, and the thought of spending 7 hours in a plane a long weekend in a
very hot city, and to be here at what is the start of Ramadan. Ramadan is the
holy month for Muslims. All adult Muslims are required to abstain from food,
drink, tobacco and certain other pleasurable pursuits between sunrise and
sunset. During Ramadan fasting is compulsory for adult Muslims and this takes
place during the hours of daylight. Here in Abu Dhabi, it is an offence to eat,
drink or smoke in the sight of a fasting Muslim.
At sunset the fast is broken with
the Iftar feast, and I am going to my first one this evening. Whilst there is
no alcohol served at the feasts they are said to be a time of great celebration
and happiness. I am looking forward to the event. And last week, right at the
start of Ramadan, one of my PhD students successfully defended his thesis at
his viva, and subject to some corrections, will now become the third nurse in
Kuwait to have a PhD. I was very proud to have been part of his journey and I
am sure he had much to celebrate at his family Iftar that night.
One of the aspects of Ramadan is
to take time to reflect about those less fortunate than oneself, and people are
encouraged to think about ‘sadaqah’ (or voluntary charity) in providing for
those poor, ill or otherwise find themselves in difficulty. Internationally,
one of the reasons that individuals can find themselves without employment, ill
or struggling with everyday life is depression. The World Health Organisation
(WHO) note that depression is one of the leading causes of disability worldwide.
Here in the United Arab Emirates,
5% of the population are known to live with clinical depression, with many more
dealing with mental health problems. Worldwide, only 25% with depression
receive treatment, and then this is mostly antidepressant medication. However,
even then, many of the current antidepressants available can cause significant
side effects, such as weight gain, drowsiness, sexual dysfunction and loss of
sexual desire, fatigue, blurred vision and insomnia. The medication is not always
successful between 30 – 50 % may not gain any therapeutic benefit.
Many antidepressants work by
increasing the level of serotonin in the brain (although how this happens isn’t
entirely clear). No new antidepressants have been developed for several decades,
so it was interesting to read of the work of researchers at the University of Bath
who have reported encouraging results from combing medication used in pain
relief with medications used in treating drug addiction. This combination, has
been shown to produce antidepressant effects (well in mice at least) without
the side effects. Publishing their results in the Journal of
Psychopharmacology, they acknowledge that while these results are promising,
there is some way to go before the combination is available for use, but the
time it will take is likely to be much, much shorter and cheaper than the
development processes used in bring new drugs to the market.
Being fleet of foot was the
subject of this year’s PA Consulting Report on UK Universities. This year’s
report essentially looked at how the UK university sector compared to the rest
of the world in terms of flexibility, attractiveness and economic viability.
The report identified 7 areas that universities needed to consider in order to
be in the running for survival: curriculum reforms and new pedagogies; student
driven flexible study modes; integration of learning with working practice; mobility
and transferability between providers; uses of technology to transform learning
experiences; use of student data analytic's for personalised services; unbundling
of educational service provision. I am glad to say that as a School we are already actively working on 6 of these areas.
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