Mental Health Programme in India: Has the tide really turned?

Mental disorders in India form a major public health concern and the efforts to tackle these dates back to four decades, by way of the National Mental Health Programme (NMHP) and its operational arm, the District Mental Health Programme (DMHP). Although the progress of NMHP (and DMHP) was relatively slower till recently, the last 4-5 years have seen rapid strides with several initiatives, including (i) expansion of DMHPs to 90 per cent of the total districts of the country, (ii) the National Mental Health Policy and (iii) strengthening the Mental Health Legislation by way of providing explicit provisions for rights of persons with mental illnesses. Among others, factors responsible for this accelerated growth include the easily accessible digital technology as well as judicial activism.

Models of Care of Schizophrenia in the Community-An International Perspective.

Purpose Of Review: We reviewed the existing and recent community models of care in schizophrenia. We examine characteristics, recent updates, evidence, cost-effectiveness, and patients' acceptance for existing and new community-based care models in high-income (HI) and low- and middle-income (LAMI) countries.

Recent Findings: Assertive Community Treatment (ACT), Intensive Case Management (ICM), and Crisis Intervention are cost-effective interventions for schizophrenia and time tested in the last few decades in HI countries.

A Survey among Teachers of Psychiatry to Improve the Quality of Undergraduate Training: Outcomes from Karnataka.

Background: In India, there is a large gap between the mental health morbidity in society and the availability of psychiatrists. However, the latest Indian undergraduate medical curriculum does not require any competency in psychiatry to be fulfilled for certification of medical graduates as doctors. Thus, the role of Indian psychiatry teachers is quite challenging.

Prevention of alcohol dependence: strategies for selective, indicated, and universal prevention.

Study of the chronology of criteria of dependence in alcohol dependence syndrome (ADS) can enable us to design strategies for the prevention for ADS, which takes into account primary prevention (indicated, selective, and universal prevention) approaches and aims at reducing the occurrence of ADS. The objective of this work is to study the age-wise and order-wise chronologies of International Classification of Diseases Tenth Revision Diagnostic Criteria for Research (ICD-10 DCR) dependence criteria in individuals with ADS. Consecutively admitted and consenting inpatients with ICD-10 DCR diagnosis of ADS were evaluated in a structured interview after detoxification using Semi-Structured Assessment for the Genetics of Alcoholism (SSAGA)-II.

Knowledge, attitude and practices of Indian dental surgeons towards tobacco control: advances towards prevention.

Aims And Methods: We assessed the knowledge, attitude and practices of dental surgeons in the city of Bangalore, Karnataka, concerning use of tobacco in their patients. A self-administered questionnaire was administered to all dental surgeons prior to a sensitization program on nicotine dependence.

Results: The dental surgeons who responded (n=100) reported a need for increasing sensitization on the issue of tobacco especially among health professionals.

Chronology of alcohol dependence: implications in prevention.

Background: Study of the chronology of criteria of dependence in alcohol dependence syndrome (ADS) can enable us design strategies for the prevention for ADS, which aims at reducing the occurrence of ADS.

Objective: To study the age-wise and order-wise chronologies of ICD-10 (DCR) dependence criteria in individuals with ADS.

Materials And Methods: Consecutively admitted and consenting inpatients with ICD-10 (DCR) diagnosis of ADS were evaluated in a structured interview after detoxification using Semi-Structured Assessment for the Genetics of Alcoholism (SSAGA)-II.

Expanding the schizophrenia phenotype: a composite evaluation of neurodevelopmental markers.

Minor physical anomalies (MPAs) and neurologic soft signs (NSSs) have been consistently reported to be more frequent in schizophrenia subjects and their first-degree relatives. We aimed at coassessing both these neurodevelopmental markers in neuroleptic-naive recent-onset schizophrenia (NRS) subjects in comparison to healthy control (HC) subjects to explore the predictive validity of this composite endophenotype. We administered the Modified Waldrop Scale (MWS) and the Neurological Evaluation Scale (NES) to evaluate MPAs and NSSs, respectively, in 40 NRS and 30 matched HC subjects.

Somatization, somatosensory amplification, attribution styles and illness behaviour: a review.

Somatic symptoms have been conceptualized in many different ways in literature. Current classifications mainly focus on the numbers of symptoms, with relative neglect of the underlying psychopathology. Researchers have emphasized the importance of a number of experiential, perceptual and cognitive-behavioural aspects of somatization.

Delusion of test-tube pregnancy in a sexually abused girl.

We report the case of a patient who presented with catatonic features and delusion of test-tube pregnancy in the background of previous sexual abuse. The reported case illustrates the importance of contemporary themes in the evolution of psychopathology.