Digital gaming interventions: a novel paradigm in mental health? Perspectives from India.

The mental health gap has been a persistent concern globally, especially in low and middle-income countries (LMIC). In an attempt to mitigate resource limitations, the psychiatric practice has been undergoing a paradigm shift into digitalized mental health interventions. One such innovation involves digital gaming utilizing the principles of 'gamification' to incorporate both the playfulness component of online gaming as well as the domain-targeted design of gaming elements. Digital gaming-based interventions have been to deliver psychotherapy, biofeedback, cognitive training and rehabilitation, as well as behavioural modification and social skills training. Research shows their utility in autism spectrum disorders, attention deficit disorders, schizophrenia, depression, anxiety disorders, post-traumatic stress, eating disorders, neurocognitive disorders and also to promote healthy aging. Though promising in scope, these interventions face pragmatic challenges for implementation in developing countries. Even though increased use of technology, internet penetration and growing digital literacy have enhanced their accessibility and feasibility, various factors like socio-cultural diversity, lack of standardization, poor infrastructural support, bandwidth issues and lack of practice can impair their use and acceptability. Keeping this in the background, this commentary critically discusses the scope, applications and challenges of digital gaming in mental healthcare delivery in one of the rapidly globalizing LMIC nations, India.

Development, Validation, and Feasibility Testing of a Yoga Module for Opioid Use Disorder.

CONTEXT: Opioid use disorder (OUD) involves excessive use of opioids-such as heroin, morphine, fentanyl, codeine, oxycodone, and hydrocodone-leading to major health, social, and economic consequences. Yoga lifestyle interventions have been found to be useful as adjunct therapies in management of substance use disorders and chronic pain conditions. OBJECTIVE: The research team intended to develop, validate, and test for feasibility a yoga program for OUD patients that could reduce opiate withdrawal symptoms-such as pain, fatigue, low mood, anxiety and sleep disturbances-and cravings associated with drugs. DESIGN: The research team first performed a literature review of traditional and contemporary yoga texts, such as Hatha Yoga Pradipika and Light on Yoga, as well as modern scientific literature in the following search engines-Google Scholar, PubMed, and PsychInfo, using the keywords yoga, pranayama, hatha yoga, relaxation. meditation, substance use, addiction, impulsivity, craving, sleep quality, and fatigue. Using the information obtained, the team developed a yoga program and designed a pilot study that used the program. SETTING: The study took place in the Department of Integrative Medicine at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS) in Bangalore, India. PARTICIPANTS: Participants in the pilot study were 8 inpatients, 6 males and 2 females, who were on opioid agonist treatment (buprenorphine) for OUD. INTERVENTION: The intervention was the yoga program previously validated by the research team. In the pilot study, participants were taught a one-hour, yoga-based intervention, with sessions occurring once per day, for 10 sessions. OUTCOME MEASURES: For validation, 13 experts scored the yoga program that the research team had developed and gave suggestions for each yogic practice for use during the acute phase of withdrawal and the maintenance phase respectively. A content validity ratio (CVR) was calculated from their scoring, and the research team made changes to the program base on the scoring and suggestions. For the pilot study, assessments occurred at baseline and postintervention. The participants' yoga performance was rated by the yoga trainer on a yoga performance assessment scale (YPA). Other measurements included: (1) the Clinical Opiate Withdrawal Scale (COWS), (2) the Hamilton's anxiety rating scale (HAM-A), (3) the Hamilton's depression rating scale (HAM-D), (4) buprenorphine dosage, (5) the Clinical Global Impression Severity (CGI-S) scale, (6) a visual analog scale (VAS) for pain, (7) sleep quality (latency and duration), and (8) the module's safety. RESULTS: Four practices were removed from the program due to CVR scores below the cutoff, and one practice was found not to be feasible (Kapalabhati). Two categories of yoga modules emerged: (1) for the acute symptomatic phase (40 minutes) and (2) for the maintenance phase (one hour). Practices were added or excluded based on the phase. CONCLUSIONS: The yoga module that was developed for reducing withdrawal symptoms and cravings in OUD patients was found to be safe, feasible, and potentially useful as an adjunct therapy to conventional treatment.

A report on successful introduction of tele mental health training for primary care doctors during the COVID 19 pandemic.

Treatment gaps of 60-70%, reflecting, amongst many other factors, Human Resources shortfalls means that 150 million India never accessed mental healthcare. In Punjab, mental health training is required in primary health centers. A short-term synchronous training was conceptualized by the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences. A total of 114 primary care doctors participated for the training. Substantial positive changes in knowledge, attitudes and practices were noted. Task sharing and capacity building initiatives can be undertaken during the pandemic to meet the demand for mental healthcare service delivery.

A camp approach of community psychiatry in India: Past, present, and the future.

Camps are a popular approach to deliver medical care in India. While it is usually a one-off event for physical ailments, it is a long-term affair in Psychiatry. One of the first camps in psychiatry was rolled out as early as in 1967 at Mandar, Ranchi, followed by Raipur Rani (Haryana) in 1976 and at Gunjur, Karnataka in 1977. This camp approach became extremely popular and got expanded across India as they were thought to be synonymous with community-based outreach for mental illnesses. In the past 5 years, however, newer models of community care have emerged, necessitating a relook at this traditional approach. In this paper, the authors trace the origin, utility and future directions of these camps, taking data from community psychiatry camps conducted by the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, Bengaluru, a premier neuropsychiatric tertiary care institute in India. Data have been collated from the annual reports of the Institute, database from the District Mental health Program, Government of Karnataka, India, and compared with published literature on the same field. While camps remain as one of the important avenues to reach the unreached, there is a need to change the approach of their functioning by incorporating training (primary care providers) aspects and collaborative care. The latter may make the initiative more meaningful and sustainable.

The Legality and Ethical Issues of Certifying Laypersons as Mental Health Counselors in India.

Background: The burden of mental health conditions and consequent disability impacts are felt most in low- and middle-income settings. These settings are constrained by the limited availability of resources to provide even essential aspects of mental health care (MHC). Task shifting and sharing interventions have shown promise in delivering community-based MHC across such low-resource settings. Some counseling tasks such as friendship bench interventions have been successfully shifted to laypersons. However, ethical and legal concerns regarding laypersons' incorporation in MHC delivery systems have not been examined. Purpose: To examine the ethical and legal concerns surrounding the certification of laypersons as community-based mental health counselors. Method: We undertook an academic review of various legislations pertinent to MHC service delivery and the certification of allied health care professionals to inform on acceptable and tenable strategies toward incorporating such a task-shifted intervention. Conclusion: Scaling up the training of human resources to address access problems can be the first step in addressing the MHC access and treatment gaps. The certification of laypersons as community-based mental health counselors, although legally tenuous, can be pioneered by tertiary-level MHC institutions. This certification has sound ethical justification and is a progressive step toward realizing universal mental health coverage.

Stake holder perspectives on the role of accredited social health activists (ASHAs) in Indian public mental healthcare space: A qualitative study.

Background: Community health workers such as Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs) are existing resources who can facilitate the bridging of the mental health treatment gap. Knowing about the perspectives of ASHAs in delivering mental health care and other professionals with experience working in the area of community mental health is imperative. Method: As part of an implementation research project aimed at comparing the effectiveness of two training methods for community health workers (ASHAs), we conducted five focussed group discussions including four with ASHAs (n = 34) and one with other stakeholders (n = 10). Focussed Group Discussion (FGD) was conducted under the following themes: acceptance and feasibility of provision of mental health services from ASHA's point of view and understanding the supply and demand side opportunities and challenges. The discussion began with open-ended questions, allowing for new themes to emerge until saturation was reached. Results: ASHAs were willing to incorporate mental health identification (and referral) in their regular activities without additional perceived burden. ASHAs were easily able to identify severe mental disorders (SMDs). For substance use disorders (SUDs), due to factors such as normalization of substance consumption and stigma, there was a felt difficulty in the recognition by ASHAs. ASHAs' difficulty in identifying the CMDs was because of poor awareness in both those with mental illness and ASHAs. Incentivizing the work of ASHAs was thought to yield more returns. Conclusions: ASHAs have the potential to be excellent resources for easy screening, identification, and follow-up of those with mental health concerns in the community. Policies to involve them need to evolve.

Digital Gaming Interventions in Psychiatry: Evidence, Applications and Challenges.

Human evolution has regularly intersected with technology. Digitalization of various services has brought a paradigm shift in consumerism. Treading this path, mental health practice has gradually moved to Digital Mental Health Interventions (DMHI), to improve service access and delivery. Applied games are one such innovation that has gained recent popularity in psychiatry. Based on the principles of gamification, they target psychosocial and cognitive domains, according to the deficits in various psychiatric disorders. They have been used to deliver cognitive behaviour therapy, cognitive training and rehabilitation, behavioural modification, social motivation, attention enhancement, and biofeedback. Research shows their utility in ADHD, autistic spectrum disorders, eating disorders, post-traumatic stress, impulse control disorders, depression, schizophrenia, dementia, and even healthy aging. Virtual reality and artificial intelligence have been used in conjunction with gaming interventions to improvise their scope. Even though these interventions hold promise in engagement, ease of use, reduction of stigma, and bridging the mental-health gap, there are pragmatic challenges, especially in developing countries. These include network quality, infrastructure, feasibility, socio-cultural adaptability, and potential for abuse. Keeping this in the background, this review summarizes the scope, promise, and evidence of digital gaming in psychiatric practice, and highlights the potential caveats in their implementation.

Yoga as an Adjunct for Management of Opioid Dependence Syndrome: A Nine-Month Follow-Up Case Report.

Opioid dependence syndrome (ODS) is a chronic relapsing remitting condition associated with significant impairment and mortality risk. Opioid substitution therapy is used worldwide, but long-term retention rates are low and there is risk of misuse and diversion. Yoga practice can improve quality of life, reduce chronic pain, and enhance endogenous opioids (beta-endorphins). We describe a case of ODS where yoga was added to the conventional management and who was followed up for 9 months. Assessments were done for clinical symptoms, urine drug screening, plasma beta-endorphins, and Buprenorphine dosage. We observed an improvement in his clinical symptoms and reduction in the requirements for Buprenorphine. A slight increase in basal plasma beta-endorphin levels was also observed at the 9-month follow-up (from 2.02 pmol/L at baseline to 6.51 pmol/L).

Civil responsibility in Geriatric Psychiatry.

Mental health issues impair decision-making capacity, more so in elderly people. Impaired decision-making capacity can make person unfit to enter into various civil deeds and agreements. Such civil deeds can include guardianship, property transaction, holding a bank account, having voting rights, making a will, donating an organ, etc. This article focuses on importance of mental health in entering into above-mentioned civil agreements, how to do assessments to determine if one is fit to enter into civil agreements, and what are the legal ways in which a person can avail help to execute his/her civil rights even when affected by mental health issues.

Criminal Responsibility in Geropsychiatry: Competence, Culpability, and Care.

Elderly persons can get involved in the criminal justice system as victims or as perpetrators. The interaction of elderly persons with mental illness at various cross-sections of the judicial process needs thoughtful consideration. Through this review, the authors approach this less studied aspect of forensic psychiatry. Concerning the evaluation of a prisoner, three scenarios need focused consideration: evaluation for fitness to stand trial before a competent court, evaluations for an insanity defense, and fitness for sentencing. At the same time, incarcerated elderly who developed dementia or a severe mental illness at any point of time during the trial or in prison need specific approaches. In this article, the authors discuss the acts and case laws relevant to navigating these legal scenarios. We discuss existing mental health care provisions for protecting the health interests of elderly care in prison.

"Guarding the Gatekeepers": Suicides among Mental Health Professionals and Scope of Prevention, A Review.

Suicide is a social evil that is considered to be a global epidemic. Mental healthcare professionals (MHP) (psychiatrists, clinical psychologists, psychiatric social work, etc.) are often involved as 'gatekeepers' in the management of suicidality and suicide prevention. Even though the risk of suicide in medical profession has received attention in research, there has been scarcity of literature related to the same in MHPs. They are not immune to the perils of psychological distress and its cascading consequences including suicide, contrary to the popular societal myths. The intrinsic and extrinsic pressures of the profession, persistent discourse in managing the psychological distress of others, professional burnout, self-stigma, societal apathy and easy access to psychotropics are certain factors making the MHPs more vulnerable. This disengagement and stress can contribute to depression, anxiety and complex trauma in the MHPs. The situation is furthermore compounded in developing countries with resource constraints, low MHP: patient ratio and inflexibility of work schedules. This makes tailored interventions, peer counselling, periodic mental health screenings and administrative understanding and accountability necessary at all levels. Keeping this in background, the review glances at the risk factors of suicide related to MHPs, highlights the problem statement and discusses the possible interventions.

Perceptions, Experiences, and Challenges of Physicians Involved in Dementia Care During the COVID-19 Lockdown in India: A Qualitative Study.

Introduction: With 5.3 million people living with dementia in India and the pandemic wreaking havoc, dementia care has faced unique challenges during the outbreak, with reduced healthcare access, travel restriction, long-term lockdown and fear of hospitalization. We explored the experiences and barriers faced by the physicians involved in dementia care during the lockdown period. Methods: A qualitative approach was used with purposive sampling. After an initial pilot, 148 physicians were included in the study. They were virtually interviewed in-depth based on a pre-designed semi-structured questionnaire, in areas related to tele-consultations, attributes related to dementia care, challenges faced and way forward. Interviews were recorded, transcribed and thematically analyzed using Nvivo-10 software. Triangulation, peer debriefing and respondent validation were used to ensure rigor. Results: The overarching categories that emerged were "Tele-medicine as the future of dementia care in India," "people living with dementia being uniquely susceptible to the pandemic with a triple burden of: age, ageism and lack of autonomy" and "markedly reduced healthcare access in this population with significant mental health burden of caregivers." The experiences of the physicians were categorized into their challenges during the lockdown period and perceptions related to specific facets of dementia care during the crisis. The general physicians expressed special "unmet needs" of dementia-specific training and specialist collaboration. Most of the participants perceived ambiguity related to the newly released telepsychiatry guidelines. Conclusion: Resource constraints and pandemic burden are currently high. This study looks at the "voices" of those actively providing dementia care during the ongoing crisis and to the best of our knowledge, is the first one from India to do so. Concurring with their experiences, PwD and their families are exposed to multiple vulnerabilities during COVID-19, need tailored care, especially at the primary healthcare level which includes general physicians. These relevant "voices" are discussed in light of the new tele-psychiatry guidelines and further optimization of dementia care in an aging India.