Epidemiology of patients attending a special clinic on sexual dysfunction from Eastern India: A retrospective data review

Background: Sexual dysfunctions (SD) are among the most common psychiatric disorders leading to significant impairment in the quality of life. However, in spite of that, little data exist regarding the prevalence of these disorders, especially from Eastern India. Methodology: This study was a retrospective analysis of the data from patients attending a special clinic conducted in the Outpatient Department in a General Hospital Psychiatry Unit from an urban center in Eastern India over the calendar year of 2016, adhering the Prins criteria. Results: Of the 237 patients attending the clinic, 235 (99.2%) were male and rest were female. The most common disorders reported included premature ejaculation (PME), erectile dysfunction (ED), comorbid ED and PME, lack of sexual desire, and dhat syndrome (DS). Comparison of the sociodemographic and clinical profile of patients of each disorder showed that patients with DS had a younger age and significantly lower history of nicotine use disorder. Conclusion: There is dearth of data regarding the prevalence of SD in clinical population from Eastern India. There is a high gender disparity among the patients attending the special clinic. The prevalence of the disorder in this clinic-based was similar to community studies conducted in India, but differed from studies conducted in Western countries. The major limitation was the cross-sectional design and limited generalizability of results

Has loneliness and poor resilient coping influenced the magnitude of psychological distress among apparently healthy Indian adults during the lockdown? Evidence from a rapid online nation-wide cross-sectional survey.

BackgroundThe burden of psychological distress is increasing with the spread of the pandemic and also with the enforcement of its containment measures. The aim of this research was to determine the proportion of self-reported psychological distress, loneliness and degrees of resilient coping, and to also investigate the relationship of loneliness, coping and other variables with psychological distress among apparently healthy Indians during nation-wide lockdown period.MethodsA cross-sectional, region-stratified survey using pre-designed pre-tested Google form disseminated via different social media platforms was conducted. A total of 1249 responses were analysed all over India. The form enquired about Socio-demographic profile, awareness on COVID pandemic and cases in the surroundings. UCLA Loneliness scale, Brief resilience and coping scale (BRCS) and Psychological distress scale (K6) assessed self-reported loneliness, coping and psychological distress, respectively. Special regressor technique adjusting for endogeneity and heteroskedasticity was used to extract the average marginal effects.ResultsMajority of the respondents were 18-35 years old, male, single and urban residents. News media, social media mostly acted as sources of information regarding COVID related news. Overall, 54.47% (95% CI: 51.39-57.53%) and 38.39% (95% CI: 35.57-41.29%) were reported to be lonely and had low resilient coping ability respectively. Around 44.68% had high risk of developing psychological distress. Being a student (average marginal effect coefficient (AMECoef).: -0.07, 95% CI: [-0.12, -0.01]) and perceiving lockdown as an effective measure (AMECoef: -0.11, 95% CI: [-0.19, -0.03]) were protective against psychological distress. Psychological distress was associated with male respondents (AMECoef 0.07, 95% CI: [0.02, 0.11]), low or medium resilient copers (AMECoef 0.89, 95% CI: [0.17, 1.61]), and perceiving a serious impact of social distancing measures (AMECoef 0.17, 95% CI: [0.09, 0.26]).ConclusionsPsychological distress among Indian population during lockdown was prevalent. Poor coping ability and perceiving social distancing to have a serious impact was found to be significantly contributing to psychological distress. Appropriate measures to address these issues would be beneficial for the community mental health

Storage, degradation, and new connectivity of face-related semantic memory in Alzheimer's disease

Background: Excepting amnesia, impairment of other domains also hampers the activity of daily living in Alzheimer's disease (AD). Although prosopagnosia poses problem in interacting with other persons, it rarely causes problem during interaction with close relatives as known voice acts as cue for recognition. Objective: In a cohort of AD, we planned to study errors in recognition, naming, and assigning relationship of close relatives, to assess the type and frequency of errors and to explain with current knowledge and hypothesis. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in Memory Clinic of Medical College Hospital, Kolkata, India, between July 2013 and June 2015. Patients were evaluated by history, general neurological examination, and neuropsychological tests. A structured questionnaire was used to assess recognition (use of honorifics) and naming defect of close relatives. Results: AD was diagnosed in 42 patients. Prosopagnosia was found in 14 and anomia in 6 patients. Four patients exhibited problem during conversation with close relatives. They assigned name and relation of one generation earlier to close relatives with proper recognitions. Discussion: We got predictive error of name and relation assignment of close relatives by one generation back with normal recognition. It can be explained by two memory traces in connection of face-visual and name (with/without relation) representation, earlier being hierarchically older and more resistant to wearing. Conclusions: We hypothesize that the name/relation store is orderly conserved. In AD, after degradation of part of name/relation store, a new wiring might be built up between these two traces