Background: Call centre workers in BPO face unique occupational hazards - mental, physical and psychosocial. Material & Method: A sample 100 call centre workers of both sexes and from two cities Pune and Mumbai were surveyed by both qualitative and quantitative methods for the above health problems. Results: A high proportion of workers faced sleep disturbances and associated mental stress and anxiety. Sleep disturbance and anxiety was significantly more in international call centres compared to domestic. There was also disturbance in circadian rhythms due to night shift. Physical problems such as musculoskeletal disorders, obesity, eye, and hearing problems were also present. Psychosocial problems included disruption in family life, use of tobacco and alcohol, and faulty eating habits. Conclusion: Better personal management, health education and more research is indicated to study the health problems in this emerging occupation.

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Background: The elderly population is large in general and growing due to advancement of health care education. These people are faced with numerous physical, psychological and social role changes that challenge their sense of self and capacity to live happily. Many people experience loneliness and depression in old age, either as a result of living alone or due to lack of close family ties and reduced connections with their culture of origin, which results in an inability to actively participate in the community activities. With advancing age, it is inevitable that people lose connection with their friendship networks and that they find it more difficult to initiate new friendships and to belong to new networks. The present study was conducted to investigate the relationships among depression, loneliness and sociability in elderly people. Materials and Methods: This study was carried out on 55 elderly people (both men and women). The tools used were Beck Depression Inventory, UCLA Loneliness Scale and Sociability Scale by Eysenck. Results: Results revealed a significant relationship between depression and loneliness. Conclusion: Most of the elderly people were found to be average in the dimension of sociability and preferred remaining engaged in social interactions. The implications of the study are discussed in the article.

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Background: Social development of children with mental retardation has implications for prognosis. The present study evaluated whether the social maturity scale alone can reflect on the social maturity, intellectual level and consequent adjustment in family and society of children with mental retardation. Materials and Methods: Thirty-five mentally retarded children were administered Vineland Social Maturity Scale and Stanford Binet Intelligence Scale. Results: It was found that there was significant relationship between the measures of social maturity scale and the IQ of the subjects. Further it was found that with increasing severity of retardation, social development also decreases and age does not have any effect on social development. Conclusion: Social quotient increases from profound to mild level of retardation.

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Background: There is a growing consensus about the validity of human personality traits as important dispositions toward feelings and behaviors (Matthews, Deary,& Whiteman, 2003). Materials and Methods: Here we examine the reliability of the Hindi translation of the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire-Revised Short Form (EPQR-S; Eysenck, Eysenck,& Barrett, 1985), which consists of 48 items that assess neuroticism, extraversion, psychoticism, and lying. The questionnaire was first translated into Hindi and then back translated. Subsequently, it was administered to 202 students (78 men and 124 women) from Banaras Hindu University. The internal consistency of the scale was evaluated. Results: The findings provide satisfactory psychometric properties of the extraversion, neuroticism and lie scales. The psychoticism scale, however, was found to be less satisfactory. Conclusion: It can be proposed that due to satisfactory internal consistency scores, the EPQRS-H is a reliable scale for the measurement of various personality traits.

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Delusion has always been a central topic for psychiatric research with regard to etiology, pathogenesis, diagnosis, treatment, and forensic relevance. The various theories and explanations for delusion formation are reviewed. The etiology, classification and management of delusions are briefly discussed. Recent advances in the field are reviewed.

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Background - The present paper reports the development and psychometric evaluation of a Hindi version of the Positive-Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) originally developed in English by Watson, Clark, and Tellegen (1988). The PANAS is widely used tool for assessment of positive and negative affect in clinical as well as non-clinical setting and has also been used as a differential diagnostic tool for distinguishing the clinical depression from anxiety. Material & Method - A Hindi version of the PANAS (PANAS-H) was developed using the contemporary psychometric standards for developing transliteral equivalents and cross-cultural adaptation of psychological tests/scales. In order to evaluate the psychometric properties, the PANAS-H was administered on a relatively heterogeneous sample of 179 participants. The obtained data was subjected to an exploratory factor analysis (principal component analysis) which identified two theoretically significant orthogonal factors. The mood adjectives reflecting the positive affect loaded significantly on factor-1 whereas the affective lexicons representing the negative emotional engagement loaded significantly on factor-2. On the basis of this pattern of factor loading the first factor was labeled as 'Positive Affect' (PA) and the second factor as 'Negative Affect' (NA). Results : A significant but low negative correlation was observed between PA and NA which suggests that PA and NA are not independent of each other. Item analysis done for each subscales revealed that the Hindi affective lexicon used for tapping the dimensions of PA and NA are reliable and valid and form a homogeneous item-pool. Conclusion : The reliability of the PA and NA subscales as well as that of the whole scale was found to be highly satisfactory (0.804 for PA, 0.776 for NA, and 0.658 for full scale). Overall, the findings suggest that 1) the PANAS-H can reliably and validly measure the PA and NA of Hindi speaking individuals, and 2) the PANAS-H measures two distinct (PA and NA) but negatively related dimensions of affect.

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Background: 'Think-manager, think-male' stereotype had lived its age and the time is ripe to give way to a Psychologically Androgynous manager, who is more personally effective. Irrespective of one's sex, he/she possesses both the masculine as well as feminine attributes and practices them as the situation so desires. Material & Method : 350 male management students were categorized under three groups viz. Typically Sex-typed, Androgynous and Undifferentiated by using Bem's Sex-role Inventory (1974). Their Personal Effectiveness scores were obtained using Pareek's Personal Effectiveness Scale(2001). Mean, S.D., t-ratio and Pearson's Correlation was calculated. Results : Three groups were found to be significantly different in terms of their Personal Effectiveness. Psychologically Androgynous group was found to be most personally effective on the dimensions of self-disclosure, benefit from feedback & perceptiveness or sensitivity to others' feelings. Also, significant correlation existed between Psychological Androgyny and Personal Effectiveness vis-à-vis the other sex-role orientations. Conclusion : Androgynous sex-role orientation predicts personal effectiveness in management students.

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Aim: Overall aim of the study was to see parent-child relationship in children of alcoholic and non-alcoholic parents. Materials and Methods: The sample consisted of 30 alcoholic and 30 non-alcoholic parents and their children taken from Kanke Block of Ranchi district. The sample was selected on the basis of inclusion and exclusion criteria. Socio-demographic data sheet and Parent Child Relationship Scale (Rao, 1978) were administered to the children. Results: In a child's perception of father in various domains of parent-child relationship, significant difference at P < 0.01 was found in the domain of symbolic punishment, rejecting, objective punishment, demanding, indifferent, symbolic reward in loving and neglecting, and in child's perception of the mother. Significant difference at P < 0.01 was found in the domain of symbolic punishment, rejecting, object punishment, indifferent and in neglecting. Conclusion: The result showed that the children of alcoholic parents tended to have more symbolic punishment, rejecting, objective punishment, demanding, indifferent, symbolic reward loving and in neglecting than children of non alcoholic parents.

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Hypothesis testing is an important activity of empirical research and evidence-based medicine. A well worked up hypothesis is half the answer to the research question. For this, both knowledge of the subject derived from extensive review of the literature and working knowledge of basic statistical concepts are desirable. The present paper discusses the methods of working up a good hypothesis and statistical concepts of hypothesis testing.

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Background : Stress in modern life leads to several poor emotional adjustment among the professional students. Material & Methods : The present study was carried out to compare the stress and emotional adjustment of students of professional courses. They were administered on ESQ by Kapoor Bhargav India adaptation and Bell Adjustment Inventory Indian adaptation by S. Hussain to assess for stress and adjustment. Results : The main findings were professional students have more stress. The result also indicated that professional students were poorly emotionally adjusted in comparison to non-professional group. Conclusion : Professional students have more stress as compared to non-professional students. Psychological intervention inform of therapy will help these students to help better.

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Background: In developing countries like India, there are evidences that stigma associated with mental illness is increasing. As in parts of the developing world, with advancement of urbanization and rapid industrialization, people tend to react in a very peculiar and biased way when they confront a mentally ill person. Materials and Methods: The present study aimed to find out students' opinion about mental illness. A total of 100 students (50 male and 50 female) from Ranchi University were purposively recruited for the study, and the 51-item Opinion about Mental Illness (OMI) Scale was administered. Results: Majority of the students were from Hindu families, of whom 42 (84%) were males and 38 (68%) were females. With regard to OMI scale, the item, viz., 'The law should allow a woman to divorce her husband as soon as he has been confined in mental hospital with a severe mental illness', both male (46%) and female (56%) students were neutral (significant at 0.014, P < 0.05). Conclusion: Overall no significant level of difference emerged between male and female students with regard to opinion about mental illness.

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Cognitive behavior therapy is probably the most well-known and the most practiced form of modern psychotherapy and has been integrated into highly structured package for the treatment of patients suffering from social phobia. The present case study is an attempt to provide therapeutic intervention program to a 27-year-old, unmarried Christian man suffering from social phobia. The patient was treated by using cognitive behavioral techniques. After 17 sessions of therapeutic intervention program, significant improvement was found. He was under follow-up for a period of 6 months and recovered to the premorbid level of functioning.

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Background: Anxiety may not be recognized by physicians though they affect a large number of patients awaiting surgery as reported in some studies. Good doctor-patient communication may have an impact on preoperative anxiety. Aim: To find out the incidence of anxiety in patients awaiting surgery and its association with good doctor-patient communication. Materials and Methods: The study was undertaken in a medical college hospital situated in an industrial township, for the duration of two months. It was a cross-sectional study. The study included 79 patients admitted to various surgical wards of a teaching hospital. Data was collected on a pretested questionnaire, which included a set of questions on various aspects of doctor-patient communication. The level of anxiety was assessed using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). Statistical analysis was carried out using the WHO/CDC package EPI INFO 2002. Though preoperative anxiety was collected on an ordinal scale, later during analysis, it was collapsed to give a categorical scale. Aspects of doctor-patient communication associated with preoperative anxiety were explored by Chi square tests. Results: Out of the total 79 patients, 26.5% reported definite anxiety levels. Good doctor-patient communication was found to be inversely associated with anxiety levels in the preoperative period. Conclusions: Preoperative anxiety is a common phenomenon among indoor surgical patients. A lot can be done to alleviate this anxiety by improving doctor-patient communication.

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Background: Three to nine per cent of teenagers meet the criteria for depression at any one time, and at the end of adolescence, as many as 20% of teenagers report a lifetime prevalence of depression. Usual care by primary care physicians fails to recognize 30-50% of depressed patients. Materials and Methods: Cross-sectional one-time observational study using simple screening instruments for detecting early symptoms of depression in adolescents. Two psychological instruments were used: GHQ-12 and BDI. Also socio­demographic data (e.g. academic performance, marital harmony of parents, bullying in school, etc) was collected in a separate semi-structured performa. Statistical analysis was done with Fisher's Exact Test using SPSS17. Results: 15.2% of school-going adolescents were found to be having evidence of distress (GHQ-12 score e"14); 18.4% were depressed (BDI score e"12); 5.6% students were detected to have positive scores on both the instruments. Certain factors like parental fights, beating at home and inability to cope up with studies were found to be significantly (P <0.05) associated with higher GHQ-12 scores, indicating evidence of distress. Economic difficulty, physical punishment at school, teasing at school and parental fights were significantly (P <0.05) associated with higher BDI scores, indicating depression. Conclusion: The study highlights the common but ignored problem of depression in adolescence. We recommend that teachers and parents be made aware of this problem with the help of school counselors so that the depressed adolescent can be identified and helped rather than suffer silently.

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The literature on hallucinations is reviewed, including history; theoretical background from physiological, biochemical and psychological points of view; classification; causation; presentation in different psychiatric and neurological disorders and in normal persons. The available evidence suggests that hallucinations result from a failure of the metacognitive skills involved in discriminating between self-generated and external sources of information. Management of hallucinations is briefly discussed.

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Background: Obsessive compulsive symptoms in schizophrenia are well recognized but are a less-researched entity. These symptoms have important implications for management and prognosis. Aim: To find out the prevalence of obsessive compulsive symptoms among patients with schizophrenia. Materials and Methods: A total of 90 hospitalized patients with schizophrenia diagnosed according to DCR of ICD-10 criteria were selected for the study. Padua inventory and Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale were applied to find out the prevalence and nature of obsessive compulsive symptoms . Results: It was found that 10% of schizophrenic patients had obsessive compulsive symptoms. Conclusion: Obsessive compulsive symptoms are prevalent in patients with schizophrenia. The presence of comorbidity should be explored for adequate management.

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Background: Emotional stability remains the central theme in personality studies. The concept of stable emotional behavior at any level is that which reflects the fruits of normal emotional development. The study aims at development of an emotional stability scale. Materials and Methods: Based on available literature the components of emotional stability were identified and 250 items were developed, covering each component. Two-stage elimination of items was carried out, i.e. through judges' opinions and item analysis. Results: Fifty items with highest 't' values covering 5 dimensions of emotional stability viz pessimism vs. optimism, anxiety vs. calm, aggression vs. tolerance., dependence vs. autonomy., apathy vs. empathy were retained in the final scale. Reliability as checked by Cronbach's alpha was .81 and by split half method it was .79. Content validity and construct validity were checked. Norms are given in the form of cumulative percentages. Conclusion: Based on the psychometric principles a 50 item, self-administered 5 point Lickert type rating scale was developed for measurement of emotional stability.

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Background : In the present era of globalization of business the nature of work organizations and its environment are changing radically extending noticeable impact on individual's job, safety, health, and well-being. Material & Methods : The present study was designed to examine the effects of overall occupational health on psychological well-being in a sample of 150 line-staff operating in a production organization. Psychometrically standardized scales were employed to assess the extent of occupational health and psychological well-being. Results : The analyses of the obtained data revealed that occupational health positively correlates with employees' mental health. Conclusion : The employees who perceived their work and its physical and psycho-social environment as to be adequate and healthy maintained relatively better overall mental health.

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Background: The study explores the effect of demographic variables such as age and level of experience on the level of stress experienced by non-gazette officers of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF). Materials and Methods: A purposive sample of 163 CRPF personnel was chosen. The Police Stress Inventory developed for use among CRPF personnel was administered. Various statistical parameters such as mean, standard deviation, standard error, mean difference and single-factor ANOVA were used to analyze the data. Conclusion: The study strongly indicates the relationship between stress and demographic variables such as age and level of experience.

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In recent times Inhalant or Volatile substances are emerging as a major drug of abuse in the preadolescent and adolescent age group. Most of the children are from broken homes and poor backgrounds. Inhalants have serious immediate and longterm side-effects and can also cause sudden sniffing death syndrome. It is difficult to control this ever-growing problem because Inhalants or Solvents are widely available. Management issues have been discussed in the review.

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Background: The present study was firstly aimed to find out the nature of stressful life events arising out of the innovative challenges in modernized organizations; and secondly, it tried to identify the relationship between innovative work behavior of managers and the levels of stress arising out of stressful events in modernized organizations (public and private) in West Bengal. Materials and Methods: Data was collected from a sample of 200 managers, by using 3 tools (General Information Schedule, Life Event Inventory and Innovative Work Behavior Scale) through a face-to-face interview. Responses were subjected to both quantitative and qualitative analyses. The data was statistically treated for 't' and ANOVA. Results: Data highlighted the fact that the qualitative profile of stressful events in the lives of managers expressed specificity in terms of their organizational type (public- and private-sector modernized organizations), and levels of stress from stressful life events were significantly higher among the modernized private-sector managers than those among public-sector managers. The prevalence of innovative work behavior was moderately higher among managers of private-sector modernized organizations than their counterparts in public-sector organizations. The trends of innovative work behavior of the managers indicated much variability due to interaction of their level of perceived stressful challenges for innovation and the global forces of change that have unleashed dynamic, systematic and higher expectation level from them.

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Background: In the present era, mental disability is a major public health problem in the society. Many of the mental disabilities are correctable if detected early. Objectives: To assess the prevalence and pattern of mental disability. Materials and Methods: Community-based cross-sectional study. Patients of all age groups in the age range of 0-60 years were randomly selected from 10 blocks of 2 districts, viz., Ranchi and Hazaribagh. Thirty villages from each block were taken for the study. The study was conducted by making house-to-house visits, interviewing and examining all the individuals in the families selected using pre-tested questionnaire. Statistical Analysis: It was done by the proportions. Results and Conclusion: The prevalence of mental disability was found higher among males (67.9%) than among females (32.1%). The prevalence rate was higher among the productive groups and among individuals with low socioeconomic status. There is scope of community-based rehabilitation of the mentally disabled.

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Background: The literature on insight has paid insufficient attention to the social experiences that are associated with receiving and endorsing a diagnosis of mental illness. The psychological and behavioral commitments associated with insight extend beyond agreeing with a diagnosis and accepting treatment to include taking on the identity of an individual diagnosed with mental illness. This study sought to examine the relationship between insight and stigma in psychiatric patients. Materials and Methods: Cross-sectional assessment of insight and stigma was done using the system adopted by Kaplan and Sadock in their comprehensive textbook of psychiatry and Felt Stigma Scale in 100 psychiatric patients (40 patients suffering from Bipolar affective disorder, 30 Schizophrenics, 20 Substance dependents and 10 with Obsessive Compulsive disorder). Results: It was found that the level of stigma felt by patients with insight was significantly higher than that felt by patients without insight. Conclusion: Though there is a certain extent of stigma present in patients without insight, as is expected, the level of stigma increases as the patients develop insight.

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