Ps Bhat

Does androgyny have psychoprotective attributes? A cross-sectional community-based study.

Background: In our society, adherence to feminine traits by the female gender had been culturally promoted and socially desired. A few studies, however, entertained the possibility that healthy men and women have some common attributes in their gender orientation. Androgyny and masculinity were found related to positive mental health. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted to assess the level of masculinity and femininity and its relationship with the perception of stress and various psychopathology including anxiety and depression. Results: Masculinity scores of the participants negatively correlated while femininity scores positively correlated with the scores on General Health Questionnaire, Becks Depressive Inventory, Becks Anxiety Inventory, and Perceived Stress Scale. Conclusion: Androgyny is psychoprotective. Empowerment-oriented psychological approaches aimed to encourage psychological androgyny, and masculinity might be therapeutic.

Understanding sexuality among Indian urban school adolescents

Context: Adolescence is a very exciting phase of life fraught with many challenges like sexuality. Understanding them is important in helping the adolescents grow up healthily. Aims: To ascertain the attitudes and knowledge about sexuality among school-going adolescents. Settings and Design: Students in two urban schools of an Indian city from class IX to XII were administered a self-reporting questionnaire on matters related to sexuality. Materials and Methods: Requisite ethical clearances were taken as also the consent of the parents and students before administration of the questionnaire. The authors clarified doubts to adolescents. Statistical analysis: Statistical package for social sciences. Results: The incidence of having sexual contact was 30.08% for boys and 17.18% for girls. 6.31% boys and 1.31% girls reported having had experienced sexual intercourse. Friends constituted the main sexual partners for both boys and girls. Sexual abuse had been reported by both girls and boys. These and other findings are discussed in the article. Conclusions: Adolescent school students are involved in sexual activity, but lack adequate knowledge in this regard. Students, teachers, and parents need to understand various aspects of sexuality to be able to help adolescents’ healthy sexual development.

Interaction of media, sexual activity and academic achievement in adolescents.

BACKGROUND Adolescence is a period when the individual is vulnerable and exposure to sexually implicit/explicit programs on television and internet can influence their sexual behaviour and make them more permissive towards premarital sex, which is known to influence their academic performance. This can be modified by parental discussion on these matters with their children. There have been only few studies from India that have explored such issues therefore this study aimed to explore the impact of television, internet and parental discussion on sexual activity and academic performance. METHODS This study was conducted in two co-education schools using a self reporting questionnaire administered to students of class IX-XII. This study evaluated the relation of academic performance, exposure to media such as television & internet to sexual activity & academic performance of the students and the role of parental discussion on these. RESULTS The study sample size was 586. There is no significant association between the number of hours of watching television per day and academic performance as measured by marks in examinations. Significant positive association was found among boys between sexual contact and average score in academics & unsupervised use of internet. In both genders a significant positive association was found between those watching English serials, movies and increased chances of indulging in sexual activity while a negative relation with those watching Cartoons. There is no significant difference in occurrence of sexual contact in those who discussed sexual matters with parents and those who did not. CONCLUSION This being first of its kind of study from India and a cross sectional study, further prospective and detailed studies are warranted to delineate the interaction of media, parental discussion, academic performance and sexual activity.

Stress in the Indian Armed Forces: how true and what to do?

Stress among the Indian Armed Forces has been a topic of discussion in the lay press, among civil society, and the political classes over the last decade, often leading to considerable concern for the military leadership. Alleged increases in the rates of suicide, fratricide, stress related physical disorders, psychiatric illnesses, and substance use have been quoted in the lay press and these figures were viewed with concern by the law makers. Military responses that some of these figures could be exaggerated or misrepresented were viewed with scepticism by the general public. Does the available epidemiological data support the contention of a stress epidemic in the Armed Forces? Various social measures to deal with stress of soldiering have been implemented and efforts to improve the psychological health of troops have been undertaken in recent times. How effective have these measures been? In this background it is proposed to review the available literature on the current concepts of stress, evaluation methodologies, epidemiological trends of stress related disorders among soldiers, stress manifestations and the availed coping strategies.

Tobacco-alcohol amblyopia: A rare complication of prolonged alcohol abuse

Tobacco-alcohol amblyopia is rare, however, extremely disabling complication seen in patient with alcohol dependence syndrome, which if not addressed properly and at the right time may lead to persisting deficits. We here report a patient of alcohol-dependence syndrome who presented with significant diminution of vision bilaterally in the background of excess alcohol consumption.

Delusional parasitosis: Worms of the mind

Delusional parasitosis is an uncommon psychotic illness. Patients often report to dermatologists and physicians for treatment and are brought to psychiatric attention only for associated psychological distress. One such case is discussed in this report.

The study of primary psychotic disorders with concurrent substance abuse in terms of their diagnostic stability.

Background: Co-morbid substance use is common among individuals presenting with symptoms of psychosis. There is a paucity of research in this area. Aim: To study the longitudinal follow-up of patients over 1-year of first episode psychosis with concurrent substance use in terms of their diagnostic stability. Materials and Methods: Fifty patients having at least one symptom of psychosis at first admission at a General Hospital Psychiatric Unit along with concurrent substance abuse were included and followed up for 1-year. International Classification of Disease-10, diagnostic criteria were used for diagnosis. Semi-structured sociodemographic performa to assess the sociodemographic profile. Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale and Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test as rating scales were used for the assessment at 6 and 12 months. Results: Of 50 patients, 31 patients who had a diagnosis of primary psychosis retained their diagnosis at follow-up. The mean age of cases in substance-induced psychosis group was 37.47 years, which was significantly higher than in primary psychosis group at 31.52 years. However, 7 patients of the substance-induced psychosis group required a change in diagnosis to primary psychosis group. The primary psychosis group patients were significantly younger, less educated, had less family support, had greater family mental illness, had more severe symptoms, and less hallucinations. Conclusion: The present study is a forerunner in this area. Salient differences indicated in the study can help in differentiating the diagnosis and in the management of cases. This is particularly relevant in the management setting and for long-term intervention purpose.

Emotional intelligence scale for medical students

Background: Emotional Intelligence has been associated with positive outcome process in varied professions. There is paucity of Indian literature on the subject; especially involving medical undergraduates; and presently there is no scale available to measure the same in the Indian scenario. Objective: To develop a scale to measure Emotional Intelligence among medical undergraduates. Materials and Methods: Four domains of Emotional intelligence were selected, viz. Self-Awareness, Self-Management, Social-Awareness & Social-Skills and these were included for the purpose of domains of the scale. On the basis of focused group discussions and in-depth deliberations with experts, undergraduate and postgraduate medical students a pool of 50 items was generated. The items were reduced to 27 based on expert consensus and on the basis of frequency of endorsement by expert reviews. It was followed by a pilot study of 50 undergraduates. This completed the preparation of the preliminary draft based on content analysis. The questionnaire was then administered in 480 students and the data was analyzed by appropriate statistical methods. For the purpose of concurrent validity, emotional intelligence scale developed by Dr. Ekta was used. Results: The Cronbachs Alpha for Internal Consistency Reliability was 0.68. The EIS had a significant correlation with social awareness domain of Emotional Intelligence Test (EIT) establishing Concurrent Validity. Conclusion: Emotional Intelligence Scale for medical undergraduates was constructed. Reliability and concurrent validity were also established for the same.

Cognitive reserve: The warehouse within.

Dementia is characterized by progressive and mostly irreversible memory loss. Other neuropsychiatric disorders affect cognition in varying manner. Are all people affected with such disorders manifest clinically in similar manner or does our brain have some reserve to tolerate insults? Relevant researches over the last two decades were scrutinized to understand brain reserve, appreciate the conceptual change in the same over years, and how the same can be improved for better cognition and memory over the year. Literature evidence suggests that the cognitive reserve (CR) is a dynamic and functional concept. There is adequate evidence to suggest that enriched environment and various other measures are likely to improve CR across all age. Improving CR may delay or reverse the effects of aging or brain pathology.

Combat psychiatry: Indian perspective

Indian Armed Forces have been engaged in various combat duties for long. The adverse effect of prolonged and repetitive deployment of troops in these highly stressful environment leads to many combat stress behaviors as well as misconduct behaviors. Preventing, identifying and managing these disruptive behaviors are an essential part of combat psychiatry within the larger domain of combat medicine. Indian Armed Forces have a well-oiled mechanism to handle these issues and military psychiatrists are deeply engaged in providing holistic mental health care to the esteemed clientele. Relevant issues on this subject are elaborated in the article.