Utilization of Emergency Psychiatry Service in a Tertiary Care Centre in North Eastern India: A Retrospective Study.

BACKGROUND: In a developing country like India, with a lot of psychosocial stressors and ample stigma toward psychiatry, we studied the sociodemographic pattern of the patients coming to a tertiary care center for emergency psychiatry services and also evaluated the types and pattern of emergency services provided to them. We also assessed the predominant presenting complaints with which patients presented at the emergency department, "reasons for referral" in an emergency by other departments, and types of psychiatric diagnoses in the patients. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: Data were extracted retrospectively from the general emergency and psychiatry emergency register of Silchar Medical College and Hospital for 1 year and analyzed. RESULTS: Out of 41,040 patients attending the hospital seeking emergency care, referral rate to the psychiatric emergency was only 2.8%. The commonest presenting complaint of subjects who were referred was "medically unexplained somatic complaints" (47.70%). The main reason for a referral from other departments was "no physical illness was detected" in the patient (38.59%). About 78.8% of the subjects were diagnosed as having a proper psychiatric illness, with the majority presenting with stress-related and somatoform disorders (F40-49) (43.45%). CONCLUSION: This study highlights various important parameters regarding emergency services being provided and their utilization by the patients attending a psychiatric emergency, which could be helpful for future policies and resource allocation for providing superior quality and cost-effective mental health care to the patients.

"Vaping:" Emergence of a New Paraphernalia.

As research, has progressed through ages, we have been able to uncover the true nature of nicotine addiction. Humankind is now aware of the various ailments that it brings with it. As the slogan for a smokeless world for a better world has been raised, a new practice called "vaping" has come to the forefront. The use of electronic cigarettes (EC) has been on the rise recently. Claims have been made over its role for nicotine deaddiction as well as reducing harmful use for chronic nicotine abusers. In the current review, we searched the PubMed database for available literatures on this practice. We conclude that though EC has the potential to work wonders in smoking cessation, the unforeseen adverse effects needs to be evaluated first before its large-scale introduction in market through solid evidence-based research.

"The Barking Girl": A Case Report of Psychogenic Cough in a Child with a Review of Literature.

A 9-year-old girl presented with 2-month history of continuous coughing; despite detailed evaluation, no organic cause was found. Considering the provisional diagnosis of a psychogenic cough, she was advised for psychiatry consultation. After a psychological assessment, she was found to have comorbid anxiety (Screen for Child Anxiety Related Disorders score- 25) along with punitive parenting and sibling rivalry issues. She was initially treated with parental psychoeducation, play therapy, and behavior therapy. Since she did not show expected progress with the treatment, low-dose escitalopram was started along with the ongoing therapy, considering her anxiety. There was a significant improvement in her symptoms in 1-month follow-up. She maintained improvement during further follow-ups. This case illustrates the need to identify and treat comorbid psychiatric issues in the management of a psychogenic cough.

Depression in diabetes mellitus-A comprehensive systematic review of literature from an Indian perspective.

Diabetes and depression are rapidly growing chronic health conditions that have significant negative impact upon the physical, psychological, social and occupational functioning, quality of life and often leads to socio-economic burden. Presence of both these comorbid diseases results in various short term and long term complications and increases the mortality as compared to those with depression or diabetes alone. OBJECTIVES: Systematic review of the epidemiological data, risk factors and relationship between depression and glycaemic control among the Indian studies. METHODS: We searched Pubmed, Pubmed Central, Google Scholar and Directory of Open Access Journal (DOAJ) databases to identify relevant Indian studies. RESULTS: Substantial variation in the prevalence of depression in people with diabetes was found across the 41 selected studies; according to this review the range is 2% to 84% (T1DM - 2-7%; T2DM - 8%-84%). Correlates of depression in diabetic patients are advancing age, female gender, low literacy rate, burden of being from a lower socioeconomic status, rural domicile, marriage and duration of diabetes of >2years, diabetes related complications and poor glycaemic control. Sedentary life without adequate physical activities, lack of self-care are often the factors that precipitates depression in a T2DM patient and vice versa. CONCLUSION: According to this review, among Indian population there is a significant association between depression and diabetes.

Telepsychiatry in India - Where Do We Stand? A Comparative Review between Global and Indian Telepsychiatry Programs.

A wide discrepancy exists in India between the existing mental healthcare repertoire and the alarmingly high burden of individuals requiring immediate attention from requisite mental healthcare services. Providing equitable mental healthcare across a vast country characterized by profound cultural variations and territorial caveats has remained a major public health concern. Against this gloomy backdrop, the emergence of distant communications technology offers solace and optimism as an ingenious approach to bridge the existing gap between clients and mental health professionals. Using inexpensive equipment and basic technical knowhow, telepsychiatry expands the scope of the discipline to distant and hazy suburbs and villages from its urban centers of excellence. The current academic endeavor intends to perform a systematic review of relevant literature from India as well as from other countries. The various models of telepsychiatry-both asynchronous and synchronous models-in practice have been elaborated on with a focus on effectiveness, feasibility and acceptability of this latest modality. A sincere attempt to chronicle the remarkable journey of telepsychiatry in India, beginning in the dawn of the 21st century to the current Indian scenario, has been made. The legal and ethical issues, along with a few words of caution and contemplation, have been briefly touched on. A set of recommendations has been provided with the hope that policy makers and administrators in the domain of mental health may benefit from them. It is anticipated that telepsychiatry will be adequately utilized in India to tackle the raging menace of inadequate mental healthcare services.

"Radio Inside My Head": A Curious Case of Early Onset "Stuck Song Syndrome" or Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder with Predominant Musical Obsession.

Musical obsessions also called "stuck song syndrome" is a topic of limited research. It is among the most poorly understood and rare phenomenology. There are only a few cases reported across the world which describes it. Subjects usually present with complaints of continuous play of a musical tune in the head which the subject is unable to remove. Because of its similarity in presentation with auditory musical hallucination, it presents a diagnostic dilemma to the clinician. Here, we present the case of a 25-year-old man who presented with this particular phenomenon, and the approach we took to manage it.

A Cross-Sectional Study on the Prevalence, Risk Factors, and Ill Effects of Internet Addiction Among Medical Students in Northeastern India.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate Internet addiction among medical students in northeastern India and gain detailed knowledge about the prevalence, risk factors, and ill effects commonly associated with the disorder. METHOD: The cross-sectional study sample comprised 188 medical students from Silchar Medical College and Hospital (Silchar, Assam, India). Students completed a sociodemographic form and an Internet use questionnaire, both created for this study, and the Young's 20-Item Internet Addiction Test after they received brief instructions. Data were collected during a10-day period in June 2015. RESULTS: Of the 188 medical students, 46.8% were at increased risk of Internet addiction. Those who were found to be at increased risk had longer years of Internet exposure (P = .046) and always online status (P = .033). Also, among this group, the men were more prone to develop an online relationship. Excessive Internet usage also led to poor performance in college (P < .0001) and feeling moody, anxious, and depressed (P < .0001). CONCLUSIONS: The ill effects of Internet addiction include withdrawal from real-life relationships, deterioration in academic activities, and a depressed and nervous mood. Internet use for nonacademic purposes is increasing among students, thus there is an immediate need for strict supervision and monitoring at the institutional level. The possibility of becoming addicted to the Internet should be emphasized to students and their parents through awareness campaigns so that interventions and restrictions can be implemented at the individual and family levels.

A clinical study of neurological soft signs in patients with schizophrenia.

BACKGROUND AND AIM: Neurological soft signs (NSSs) are "objectively measured, nonlocalizing abnormalities, not related to impairment of a specific brain region, reflecting improper cortical-subcortical and intercortical connections." The possibility of NSS as an endophenotype in schizophrenia has been studied across the globe. We aimed at finding the prevalence of NSS among patients with schizophrenia as well as the associations of NSS between various sociodemographic and illness variables. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: One hundred patients between the age group of 16 and 60 years were serially selected from the inpatient department of a tertiary care hospital who have been diagnosed as a case of schizophrenia according to the International Classification of Diseases version 10 during 1 year period. A semi-structured pro forma was used to collect various demographic as well as illness data, and subjects were clinically evaluated for NSS using neurological evaluation scale. RESULTS: The prevalence of NSSs was found to be 67%, significant association was found between NSS and age, occupation, and duration of illness. A statistically significant correlation was found between NSS and age, NSS and duration of illness. CONCLUSION: The validity of NSS as an endophenotype lies in the fact that it should be independent of all sociodemographic and illness variables. However, our study evaluated some statistically significant findings between them. Hence, further researches are required with properly adjusted controls to find if the associations obtained between NSS and different variables here are true or whether there are some confounding factors included.

A Rare Case of Mayer-Rokitansky-Kuster-Hauser Syndrome Presenting with Acute Psychosis.

The psychiatric co-morbidities in female population with mullerian agenesis is an area with limited research. This is probably due to the fact that when those patients are diagnosed not much attention or information is given for long term psychiatric follow-up. Owing to their inability to bear children, these subjects often become socially harassed. Thus these constant stressors may lead to development of psychopathology in future. Mayer-Rokitansky-Kuster-Hauser (MRKH) syndrome is a congenital abnormality with absence of uterus, cervix and vagina, but normal secondary sexual characteristics and external genitalia and occurs in every 1 out of 4000-10,000 females. There is also limited literature on the probable common chromosomal aetiology for both psychosis and MRKH patients. We, present here a case of MRKH syndrome, whose initial presentation was psychosis only. In this respect, we also highlight the much neglected need of appropriate psychiatric screening and provision of psychiatric care in this population.

An Atypical and Resistant Case of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Responding Satisfactorily with an Unusual way of Exposure and Response Prevention Therapy.

It is well established fact that a combination of pharmacological therapy plus cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) - exposure and response prevention (ERP) is considered first line for the treatment of obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). This case presented here supports this point in unusual way of ERP administration in an atypical and resistant case of OCD proved to be beneficial over pharmacotherapy. The case was atypical in the sense that it had many overvalued ideas, superstitions and religious beliefs playing major role in its aetiology. Also, misconstruction of chance associations, intense stimulus generalization and invivo exposure proving the best modality of treatment made it atypical.

"One level more:" A narrative review on internet gaming disorder.

Due to explosive growth in technology and internet usage in the last few years, internet gaming disorder (IGD) has manifested as rapidly growing public health problem mainly affecting the teen and preteen population worldwide. It has a negative impact upon physical, psychological, social, and occupational functioning of the affected individual, often leading to severe consequences. It was only recently that it has been recognized as a separate diagnosable disorder in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders Fifth Edition. Not much data is available regarding the exact prevalence and the various sociodemographic, clinical, and other risk factors to identify the individuals vulnerable to develop this disorder, especially in the developing countries such as India. According to a recent report, India ranks 22nd in the list of highest revenue-generating countries from gaming-related businesses, thus highlighting the magnitude of risk faced by Indian population. The aim of this review is to provide an insight about the disorder to identify the risk factors and clinical features, to understand the effect of IGD upon the psychological and physical health with a special focus on neural changes, and to provide information on the various upcoming preventive and treatment strategies.