Anamika Sahu

Assessment of cognitive functions in bipolar I disorder: A 1-year naturalistic follow-up study

Available findings from cross‐sectional studies have demonstrated cognitive impairments in bipolar I disorder (BD‐I) during various phases of illness. However, very little is known about the longitudinal course of these cognitive impairments. The purpose of the study was to explore the longitudinal pattern of changes in cognitive functioning of BD‐I patients.

Psychological effects of amputation: A review of studies from India

Amputation is a major health burden on the families, society, and on medical services as well. Traumatic limb amputation is a catastrophic injury and an irreversible act which is sudden and emotionally devastating for the victims. In addition, it causes inability to support self and the family and driving many patients toward various psychiatric disorders. Extensive information regarding the effects of amputation has not been ascertained and therefore it was decided to do a systematic review. The goal of this review was to provide comprehensive information of peer-reviewed papers examining the psychological distress among amputees in India. A search of the literature resulted in a total of 12 articles with varied sample size from 16 to 190. The sample has been largely comprised males with lower limb amputation caused by primarily traumatic ones, i.e., motor vehicle accident, railway track accidents, machinery injury, blasts, etc., The prevalence of psychiatric disorders among amputees has been found to be in the range of 32% to 84% including depression rates 10.4%–63%, posttraumatic stress disorder 3.3%–56.3%, and phantom limb phenomenon 14%–92%. Although the studies reported that symptoms of anxiety and depression become better over the course of time, however surgical treatment providers need to liaise with psychiatrists and psychologists to support and deal with the psychological disturbances.

A study of psychiatric comorbidity after traumatic limb amputation: A neglected entity

Background: Amputation following trauma is emerging as a major health burden on the medical services and on the families and the society as well. Loss of limbs causes inability to support self and the family that further leads to various psychiatric disorders in many patients. Therefore, the present study is planned to explore psychiatric comorbidity in patients with amputation following trauma. Materials and Methods: Fifty-nine amputees were recruited by consecutive sampling within 6-month period from amputation clinic of a tertiary care hospital. All participants were interviewed on a semi-structured pro forma of sociodemographic and amputation-related parameters and assessed on psychiatric comorbidity using Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview scale. Results: Majority of the patients were male (88.1%) and belonged to younger age group of 16–30 years (71.2%). Approximately, 97% of patients had single-limb amputation (96.6), predominantly right limb (55.9%). Lower limb amputation was noted in 79.7% of participants. Motor vehicle accident was the most common mode of injury followed by railway track injury and others. The most common psychiatric comorbidities in our sample were major depressive disorder (71.2%), suicidality (30.5%), and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) (20.3%). PTSD was positively correlated with phantom sensation (rs = 0.295, P = 0.05) and phantom pain (rs = 0.279, P < 0.05). Conclusion: A substantial proportion of amputees had alarming sign of depression, suicidal ideation, and PTSD. Thus, there is a need to form liaison between surgical treatment providers and psychiatrists and psychologists to manage psychiatric comorbidity in amputees.

Prevention for child and adolescent psychiatry in low-resource settings

Preventive measures for mental health issues among children have received meager attention. Although the prevalence rates of mental disorders are significant, systematic focused efforts toward management specifically in this special population in low-resources settings have been markedly inconsequential. Certainly, unlike other medical conditions, policies, and services related to mental health of children and adolescent are not adequate and efficient to deal with the burden of mental disorders in children and adolescents. This article reviews the available resources and highlights the possible strengths that can be utilized in prevention strategies.

Need to develop a home-based intervention for specific learning disorder in Indian setting

10.4103/0253-7176.211748 This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution‐NonCommercial‐ShareAlike 3.0 License, which allows others to remix, tweak, and build upon the work non‐commercially, as long as the author is credited and the new creations are licensed under the identical terms. How to cite this article: Naguy A. Benzodiazepines in schizophrenia: Nemesis or Nirvana?. Indian J Psychol Med 2017;39:547‐8.

Effectiveness of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy in Adolescents

Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is a popular therapeutic approach that has been applied to a variety of problems. CBT has received an incredible amount of research attention and empirical support for treatment. It has been widely adopted and practised as a first-line treatment approach in adults and adolescents. Thus, the importance of CBT in the field of psychotherapy is predicted to increase. In this chapter, we summarized the empirical literature regarding the efficacy of CBT for various problems in children and adolescents. For each disorder, we reviewed evidence for efficacy of CBT in six content areas as follows: (1) the specific components of CBT investigated in the previous studies, (2) efficacy compared among different approaches of CBT, (3) efficacy compared with other psychotherapies (psychoanalytic psychotherapy, family therapy, and interpersonal therapy), (4) efficacy compared with pharmacotherapy, (5) efficacy compared with a combination of CBT and pharmacotherapy, and (6) long-term efficacy. In addition, this chapter also looks at the importance of training for practising CBT.

Depression is more than just sadness: A case of excessive anger and its management in depression

People with depressive illness often have symptoms of overt or suppressed anger. Those with anger traits face exaggerated problem during symptomatic period of depression. Pharmacological management helps in control of depressive and anxiety symptoms, but rarely address anger symptoms. Non-pharmacological management like cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is effective in depression as well as in anger management, but is not used frequently in anger associated or exacerbated by depression. We present the case of a 27-year-old male suffering from moderate depressive episode with associated anger outburst. He underwent CBT, which resulted in a significant decrease in anger symptoms as well as in severity of depression.