Assessment of depression, anxiety, stress, alcohol dependence, and resilience in migrant workers during COVID-19 crisis.

Background: During the COVID-19 pandemic, migrant workers in India have gone through many hardships. After the lockdown, many construction sites, factories, and workplaces shut down, and innumerable migrant workers faced a loss of income, shortage of food, and uncertain future. This massive change in their living conditions made them vulnerable to psychological problems.

Ildr1 gene deletion protects against diet-induced obesity and hyperglycemia.

Objective: Immunoglobulin-like Domain-Containing Receptor 1 (ILDR1) is expressed on nutrient sensing cholecystokinin-positive enteroendocrine cells of the gastrointestinal tract and it has the unique ability to induce fat-mediated CCK secretion. However, the role of ILDR1 in CCK-mediated regulation of satiety is unknown. In this study, we examined the effects of ILDR1 on food intake and metabolic activity using mice with genetically-deleted Ildr1.

Intracranial space-occupying lesion masked by alcohol dependence syndrome.

A lot of comorbidities exist in patients with dependence on alcohol, psychoactive, or other substances. Many times, their comorbidities go undiagnosed or neglected due to the stigma prevalent with dependence. A 22-year-old person with alcohol dependence who was detected to have a parietal lobe space-occupying lesion which proved to be a tuberculoma is reported.

Catatonia: A rare presentation of Wilson's disease.

Wilson's disease (WD) or hepatolenticular degeneration is a rare inherited disorder of copper metabolism affecting both the liver and the central nervous system. Psychiatric manifestations may precede neurological signs in the early stages of WD, but catatonia is a rare presentation. Here, we report a case of an 18-year-old girl who presented to the psychiatry outpatient department with catatonia.

COVID-19 lockdown - Blessing or disaster?

Despite the dubious results of the nationwide lockdown in India state after state continue to clamp lockdowns indiscriminately and claim that it is a panacea for all their ills. Unverified claims abound and myths are perpetuated without any basis. It is time to take a close look at the hard data and come to logical conclusions regarding the utility of prolonged open-ended lockdowns.

Quarantine: Psychological aspects.

Quarantine is an age old methods of preventing the spread of infection by restricting the movement of persons or goods. It has again come to global attention due to its widespread implementation during the COVID-19 pandemic. While the public health utility of quarantine is well established, it is associated with few psychological effects which are neither well known nor recognized.

Stigma associated with COVID-19.

A number of incurable, deadly, and disfiguring diseases are associated with stigma which worsens the quality of life of the sufferer. Unfortunately, at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the disease was associated with severe stigma and extreme prejudice. Stigma of COVID-19 and its adverse effects are briefly discussed and solutions suggested.

Induced delusional disorder: A case series.

Phenomenon of induced delusional disorder has a relatively long, controversial history of conceptualization. It is a rare entity and goes undiagnosed mostly as only the primary partner is brought to clinical attention. We present a case series of induced delusional disorder with different presentations.

Blasphemous thoughts in obsessive-compulsive disorder: A case series.

Obsessive-compulsive disorders (OCDs) are one of the top 10 contributors of debilitating medical illnesses and are the fourth most common psychiatric disorder. Blasphemous thoughts, also known as scrupulosity, as an obsessional theme has piqued curiosities long before it was considered a neurosis. Such obsessions may or may not have an accompanying compulsion and comprise 5% of the patients of OCD.

Psychogenic nonepileptic seizures: A case series.

Manifestation of abnormal excessive synchronous cortical activity, which is what defines epileptic seizures, is typically absent in seizures with psychological etiology, a heterogeneous set of factors that have been identified. Distinguishing psychogenic nonepileptic seizures (PNES) from epileptic seizures may be difficult at the bedside. We report a case series of PNES which presented with diagnostic dilemma.

Knowledge and practices related to menstruation among tribal adolescent girls.

Background: Despite the fact that every girl has to deal with menstrual hygiene, there is a lack of awareness about the process of menstruation and proper menstrual hygiene among adolescent girls, especially from tribal backgrounds.

Aim: The aim of the study was to assess the knowledge and practices related to menstruation among tribal (Munda) adolescent girls.

Materials And Methods: This was a community-based cross-sectional study.

Association of childhood psychological trauma with eating disorders in undergraduate medical students.

Aim: The aim of the study was to study the association of childhood psychological trauma with eating disorders (EDs) and to assess and compare the relationship with food, concerns about weight gain, and restrictive or compensatory practices in male and female undergraduate medical students.

Materials And Methods: A cross-sectional, analytical study was performed in a Tertiary Care Medical College and Research Hospital in a suburban area of India. After obtaining ethical clearance, 100 final-year undergraduate students were included in the study with their informed consent.

Interaction of a Cationic Porphyrin and Its Metal Derivatives with G-Quadruplex DNA.

G-quadruplex (GQ) structures formed from guanine-rich sequences are found throughout the genome and are overrepresented in the promoter regions of some oncogenes, at the telomeric ends of eukaryotic chromosomes, and at the 5'-untranslated regions of mRNA. Interaction of small molecule ligands with GQ DNA is an area of great research interest to develop novel anticancer therapeutics and GQ sensors. In this paper we examine the interactions of TMPyP4, its isomer TMPyP2 (containing N-methyl-2-pyridyl substituents, N-Me-2Py) as well as two metal derivatives ZnTMPyP4 and CuTMPyP4 with GQs formed by dTG and dTGT in 100 mM K or Na conditions.

Lowering the overall charge on TMPyP4 improves its selectivity for G-quadruplex DNA.

Ligands that stabilize non-canonical DNA structures called G-quadruplexes (GQs) might have applications in medicine as anti-cancer agents, due to the involvement of GQ DNA in a variety of cancer-related biological processes. Five derivatives of 5,10,15,20-tetrakis(N-methyl-4-pyridyl)porphyrin (TMPyP4), where a N-methylpyridyl group was replaced with phenyl (4P3), 4-aminophenyl (PN3M), 4-phenylamidoproline (PL3M), or 4-carboxyphenyl (PC3M and P2C2M) were investigated for their interactions with human telomeric DNA (Tel22) using fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) assay, and UV-visible and circular dichroism spectroscopies in K buffer. The molecules are cationic or zwitterionic with an overall charge of 3+ (4P3, PN3M, and PL3M), 2+ (PC3M) or neutral (P2C2M).