Depression, Anxiety and Stress Reduction in Medical Education: Humor as an Intervention

Background: In recent years there has been a growing appreciation of the issues of quality of life and stresses involved in medical training as this may affect their learning and academic performance. Objective of the study was to explore the effectiveness of humor when used as intervention in large group teaching over negative emotions amongst students. Method: The present Interventional, Randomized control trial study was carried out on medical students of 4th Semester of RMCH, Bareilly, which has total 90 students. Using simple random sampling lottery method the whole class was divided in two groups-A and B consisting of 45 students each. Group A as control group and Group B experimental group. In first and last lecture of both groups Dass-21 was used as measuring scale, for depression, anxiety and stress and results were compared to see the effect of humor on these three negative emotions. Result: Comparison of Severe and Extremely severe Stress: In Group A 40.54% in class -1 increased to 47.54% in class- 4, while in group B initial 13.15 % was reduced to 0 % (highly significant). Anxiety: In group A, after Class 1 -57.45% increased to 61.11% after class 4, while in group B, after class 1- 23.68% reduced to 2.27% only (highly significant). Depression: In group A, after Class 1 - 40.53% & 41.66 % after class 4 (not significant), while in group B, after class 1- 18.41% reduced to 0% (highly significant). Conclusion: In present study humor was found to be very effective intervention in relieving students on their negative emotions of depression, anxiety and stress to a larger extent. Further research would justify the use of humor as an effective teaching aid in medical education

Subjects in Difference: Walter Benjamin, Frantz Fanon, and Postcolonial Theory

This essay aims to rethink historical difference in light of Walter Benjamin’s formulation of mimesis and Frantz Fanon’s phenomenology of difference. Divided into three parts, the essay engages Dipesh Chakrabarty’s account of historical difference, considers how an understanding of mimesis might safeguard against some of the philosophical pitfalls within Chakrabarty’s formulation, and revisits Fanon for an explication of a theory of mimesis and difference that may be the grounds for a renewed understanding of historical difference. The essay makes a case for the relevance of Frankfurt School dialectics for postcolonial problematics

On Finitude: Life and Death Under Neoliberalism

Essay in contemporary Indian photography, for Fotofest 201

Evaluation of correction rates for titanium-alloy and cobalt-chrome-alloy rods in adolescent idiopathic scoliosis

Background: The customary treatment of AIS is spinal fusion with instrumentation using rigid rods. In parallel, agents such as, curve magnitude, points of fixation, level instrument selection, curve flexibility, kind of anchor rods used for patients and post-operative care are the main factors affecting the outcome of surgery.Methods: A total 50 patients was included in the study. The control group, which included 31 patients treated with Ti rods, was compared with an experimental group of 19 patients treated with CCM rods. Correction surgery was performed through posterior approach using rod-rotation maneuver after inserting a pedicle screw in each vertebrae within the fusion. Six-millimeter CCM and six-millimeter Ti rods were used in experimental and control groups, respectively. Pre and postoperative indices of coronal alignment and sagittal alignment were measured.Results: There was no statistical difference between the two groups for age, sex, Risser’s stage, preoperative Cobb’s angle, type and flexibility of curvature. The correction rate of thoracic curve was 71.4±10.2% for the CCM group and 71.8±6.1% for the Ti group. There were no statistical differences between the two groups for all coronal and sagittal factors (p>0.05).Conclusions: AIS cases with double curvature, there was no statistically significant difference between Ti and CCM rods for coronal and sagittal plane correction rates. The derivations from biomechanical studies do not translate into clinical situations