The neuropsychiatric and cognitive deficits have been shown to exist in various psychiatric disorders. An attempt has been made by authors to evaluate the evidence pertaining to electrophysiological, structural and neuropsychological domains in depression. Renewal of interest in testing patients with depression on a broad range of neuropsychological tasks has revealed distinct pattern of cognitive impairment in cases with depression. The review focuses on structural and neuropsychological evidence of deficit in cases of depression.

Background: There is a growing concern that medical education does not prepare the future health professional to effectively deal with violence against women. Against this background, the present study was undertaken. Aims: To elicit perception of violence against women among medical and nursing students, and study the association of these perceptions with certain demographic and social variables. Settings and Design: The study was conducted among students of a Medical College and a Nursing College both located at Pune, India. A cross-sectional descriptive study design was used to elicit the perceptions of the study subjects toward violence against women. Materials and Methods: A random sample of 125 medical and 125 nursing students was selected. Both quantitative and qualitative methods of data collection were employed. Qualitative data collection was done by focus group discussions with key persons such as dean and faculty of medical and nursing colleges. The syllabi of medical and nursing colleges were also reviewed for any topic related to domestic violence. Statistical analysis: The WHO/CDC Statistical and Epidemiology Software Package was used for data entry and statistical analysis. Various associations were explored by nonparametric tests (Mann-Whitney) for ordinal data and by Chi-square and ODDS ratio (with 95% confidence intervals), for categorical data. Results: Overall 35.6% (95% CI 29.1%-42.6%) of the study participants had witnessed/were aware of violence against women among their family/acquaintances. This awareness was significantly more among female respondents (OR=2.65, 95% CI 1.37-5.16), Chi Sq=9.81, df=1, P=0.001. Other socioeconomic variables such as urban/rural background, education, and income were not associated with perception about family violence. Majority (>80%) agreed/strongly agreed that social agencies should do more to help battered women. Course content on violence against women was lacking in both medical and nursing syllabi. Conclusions: Female participants were generally more perceptive about the issue. Medical and nursing syllabi should incorporate strategies for dealing with violence against women.

Background: To study the pattern of Internet use across people of various professions who have access to it; the impact of Internet use on their personal, social, and occupational life; and to evaluate their Internet use on the International Classification of Diseases-Tenth Revision (ICD-10) dependence criteria and Young's Internet Addiction Diagnostic Questionnaire (IADQ). Materials and Methods: Hundred four respondents were assessed on a 31-items self-rated questionnaire covering all the ICD-10 criteria and Young's criteria for Internet addiction. Results: The typical profile of an Internet user was as follows: the mean duration of Internet use was 73.43 months (SD 44.51), two-thirds (65.38%) of them were using Internet on a regular basis for a period of more than a year, the mean duration of daily Internet use was 39.13 months (SD 35.97), the average time spent in Internet use was 2.13 h (SD 1.98) everyday, more than half (56.73%) of the sample was using Internet at least for 2 h/day, and the most common purpose of Internet use was educational for two-thirds (62.5%) of the sample. The five most commonly endorsed items were as follows: the need to use the Internet everyday (53.8%), Internet use helping to overcome bad moods (50%), staying online longer than one originally intends to (43.3%), eating while surfing (24%), and physical activity going down since one has started using the Internet (22.1%). When evaluated on ICD-10 substance dependence criteria and Young's IADQ separately, the prevalence of the 'cases' of Internet addiction came out to be 51.9 and 3.8%, respectively. Conclusions: The Internet affects the users' life in multiple ways. The sharp difference in the prevalence estimates of Internet addiction depending on the type of criteria used shows the fragility of the construct of Internet addiction. A cautious approach should be adopted while revising the nosological system to differentiate users from those who are dependent.

Background : "Crime" is increasing day by day in our society not only in India but also all over the world. In turn, the number of prisoners is also increasing at the same rate. They remain imprisoned for a long duration or in some cases for the whole life. Living in a prison for long time becomes difficult for all inmates. So they often face adjustment and mental health problems. Recent findings suggest that mental illness rate in prison is three times higher than in the general population. Objective: The aim of the present study was to investigate the adjustment and the mental health problem and its relation in the prisoners. Materials and Methods : In the present study, 37 male prisoners of district jail of Dhanbad District of Jharkhand were selected on purposive sampling basis. Each prisoner was given specially designed Performa - Personal Data Sheet, General Health Questionnaire-12 and Bell Adjustment Inventory. Appropriate statistical tools were used to analyze the data. Results: The results obtained showed poor adjustment in social and emotional areas on the adjustment scale. The study also revealed a significant association between adjustment and mental health problem in the prisoners. Conclusion: The prisoners were found to have poor social and emotional adjustment which has strong association with their mental health.

Background: Previous research supports that factors commonly associated with underachievement include low academic self-concept, low self-efficacy, low self-motivation, low goal valuation and negative attitude toward school and teachers. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to assess the feeling about reading of adolescent underachievers, including emotional difficulties, physical problem (usually eye dysfunction), mechanism of reading, self-concept, and interest in reading. Materials and Methods: Forty-eight underachievers were compared with 40 achievers from 6 to 10 standard students on "My feeling about reading" checklist. Hypotheses were tested using t-test and χ² (chi-square) test through statistical package for the social sciences. Results: The result suggests that underachievers significantly differ from achievers in all five domains, i.e. emotional difficulties, physical problems (usually eye dysfunction), mechanism of reading, self-concept, and interest in learning. Conclusion: Underachievers face different emotional and other psychological difficulties during their academic sessions. They must be taken care of properly within their academic environment.

Background: Biofeedback is a technique in which people are trained to improve their health by learning to control certain internal bodily processes that normally occur involuntarily. Various studies in the past have shown usefulness of Alfa electroencephalographic (EEG) biofeedback in the alleviation of anxiety symptoms. Though most of the psychiatric centers in the armed forces have this facility, not much work has been done in our setup to assess its efficacy in the management of anxiety. Hence this study was undertaken. Materials and Methods: This study was carried out in a multispecialty Command Hospital by enrolling 100 patients with psychiatric diagnosis from both inpatient and outpatient services. The anxiety level was assessed clinically and by using Hamilton Anxiety Scale and Taylor's Manifest Anxiety Scale. One group of 50 patients was treated with Alfa EEG biofeedback sessions only, 5 times in a week for 8 weeks, along with specific pharmacotherapy. The other group was treated with appropriate dose of anxiolytics. The anxiety level was reassessed after 4 weeks and 8 weeks. Results: The response was better for mixed anxiety and depressive disorder with pharmacotherapy than with the biofeedback, but female patients showed better response with EEG biofeedback. Conclusion: In the short term, Alfa EEG biofeedback therapy is almost as efficacious as pharmacological intervention in the management of anxiety symptoms, and relatively more useful in females.

Background: Life satisfaction and perceived social support been shown to improve the well-being of a person and also affect the outcome of treatment in somatization disorder. The phenomenon of somatization was explored in relation to the perceived social support and life satisfaction. Aim: This study aimed at investigating perceived social support and life satisfaction in people with somatization disorder. Materials and Methods: The study was conducted on persons having somatization disorder attending the outpatient unit of LGB Regional Institute of Mental Health, Tezpur, Assam. Satisfaction with life scale and multidimensional scale of perceived social support were used to assess life satisfaction and perceived social support respectively. Results: Women reported more somatic symptoms than men. Family perceived social support was high in the patient in comparison to significant others' perceived social support and friends' perceived social support. Perceived social support showed that a significant positive correlation was found with life satisfaction. Conclusion: Poor social support and low life satisfaction might be a stress response with regard to increased distress severity and psychosocial stressors rather than a cultural response to express psychological problems in somatic terms.

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, Beck's Depressive Inventory, Beck's Anxiety Inventory, and Perceived Stress Scale. Conclusion: Androgyny is psychoprotective. Empowerment-oriented psychological approaches aimed to encourage psychological androgyny, and masculinity might be therapeutic.

Background: Nicotine use and abuse is gaining increasing attention due to its negative and serious medical consequences. Multiple morbidities occur due to the intake of nicotine in various forms. Aims: To find the prevalence and type of nicotine use/abuse in females. Settings and Design: House to house survey in a village in Purvanchal, i.e. eastern part of Uttar Pradesh and bordering Bihar. Materials and Methods: Semi-structured performa was used to collect data; a house to house visit was made to collect data. Statistical Analysis: Simple percentages were calculated. Results: Tooth powder form of nicotine use is common and the need to address this problem is urgent. Conclusions: Widespread dissemination of knowledge and legislative measures have to be undertaken to stop the problem.

Zotepine is an antipsychotic used in Japan and Europe for years and recently being introduced in Indian markets. It is claimed to be particularly effective for negative symptoms, and somnolence and weight gain are the most common side effects. Our aim is to share our clinical experience of use of zotepine with respect to its tolerability. We reviewed the first 10 patients who were prescribed zotepine at our center.

There is a widely held clinical opinion that syphilis has disappeared. Contrary to this, there are sporadic cases being reported across the country. The classical cases of neurosyphilis have given way to the milder asymptomatic forms, making them even more difficult to be diagnosed. Conventional presentation of neurosyphilis such as tabes dorsalis and general paresis of insane are read in textbooks only and rarely encountered in clinical practice in the 21 ^st century.

Tardive dyskinesia (TD), neuroleptic-induced delayed onset movement disorder, remains an enigmatic phenomenon and a therapeutic challenge. Only a few cases of dysphagia also have been reported in world literature and to the best knowledge of the authors no case of TD manifesting as isolated dysphagia has been reported so far from India. We report a case of TD consequent to prolonged exposure to typical neuroleptics, manifesting as isolated dysphagia who responded well to a combination of Quetiapine, Donepezil and Vit E.

Almost all the antipsychotics can cause hyperprolactinemia-related side-effects like amenorrhea. Quetiapine has been reported to have minimal propensity to cause hyperprolactinemia. We report here two cases of risperidone-induced amenorrhea, who resumed their normal cycle on switching over the medication to quetiapine.

India has the highest number of medical colleges in the world and, consequently, the highest number of medical teachers. The unprecedented growth of medical institutions in India in the past two decades has led to a shortage of teachers and created a quality challenge for medical education. In recent years, though medical advances have been understood and adopted by many institutions, the same is not true for educational planning and implementation. There is a need for well-trained faculty who will help improve programs to produce quality graduates. The existing teachers' training programs are insufficient; both in number and aspects they cover, to meet this demand. Provision of faculty development related to teaching and assessment strategies is widely perceived to be the essential ingredient in the efforts to introduce new curricular approaches and modify the educational environment in academic medicine. Analyses of the outcomes of efforts to revise health professions curricula have identified the availability and effectiveness of faculty development as a predictor of the success or failure of reform initiatives. This article will address faculty development for the purpose of enhancing teaching effectiveness and preparing instructors for potential new roles associated with curriculum changes.