Marital quality in alcohol dependance syndrome: a comparative study between first time and repeatedly hospitalised patients

Background: Marital quality is considered as a significant part of social well-being. Poor marital quality adversely affects physical and mental health as well as the overall quality of life. Moreover, it can significantly affect the course of alcohol dependance syndrome. The aim this study was to compare the marital quality among patients with alcohol dependance syndrome who are admit-ted for the first time and patients with alcohol dependance syndrome (ADS) who are admitted for multiple times.Methods: The sample consisted of each 30 patients with alcohol dependance syndrome who are admitted for the first time and patients with alcohol dependance syndrome who are admitted for multiple times, diagnosed as per international classification of diseases-10 diagnostic criteria for research. The sample population was evaluated using Severity of Alcohol Dependence Questionnaire and The Marital Quality Scale. The data was analysed using SPSS-16.0.Results: The severity of alcohol dependance was found to be significantly higher in the repeatedly hospitalised group when compared to first time admitted patients with ADS (p<0.01). The repeatedly hospitalised patients are found to be having significantly poor Marital Quality in the domains of Understanding, Rejection, Satisfaction, Affection, Despair, Decision Making, Dominance, Self-Disclosure, Trust and Role Functioning, when compared to first time admitted patients (p<.001).Conclusions: How problem use of alcohol affect marital quality is not settled in research till date, though most of the studies suggest a negative correlation. There are contradictory hypotheses regarding the effects of alcohol use on marital quality. Our study showed that patients with severe degrees alcoholism and who are admitted repeatedly have poor marital quality when compared to patients with lesser severity of alcoholism and admitted for the first time in Indian context

Jinn and psychiatry: Beliefs among (muslim) doctors

Background: The belief that jinn can cause mental illness in human through afflictions or possession is widely accepted among Muslims. Belief about jinn in Muslim medical professionals, especially medical doctors has not been studied till date. Aim: To explore the belief among Muslim doctors regarding jinn and psychiatry. Materials and Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study among Muslim doctors using a study questionnaire. Results: Majority of the participants believed in the existence of jinn and a significant proportion of the sample believed in jinn possessing humans and jinn causing mental illness in humans and recommended treatment by doctor and religious figures together for jinn afflictions. Conclusion: The belief in jinn and jinn causing mental illness are common among Muslims and remain intact even after medical education. It deserves attention from practitioners in the field of mental health care and demand strengthening of liaison between religious leaders and mental health services

Self-limiting diarrhea in an infant exposed to sertraline in breast milk

Sertraline is widely used to treat postpartum depression. Though studies found detectable levels of sertraline in infant blood, very few adverse effects are reported. Reporting hereby is a case of an infant who developed self-limiting diarrhea, probably due to exposure to sertraline in breast milk

Seizure associated with olanzapine

Atypical antipsychotics are known to be associated with electroencephalogram abnormalities. Olanzapine can lower seizure threshold and induce epileptiform discharges. However in patients on Olanzapine for the treatment of a primary psychiatric disorder, clinical seizure is a rare occurrence. We report the case of a 23-year-old female with mild mental retardation with schizophrenia with obsessive compulsive disorder who developed new-onset generalized tonic-clonic seizure probably due to Olanzapine. Electroencephalogram showed epileptiform discharges. The seizure risk associated with Olanzapine was reviewed

Sertraline induced mandibular dystonia and bruxism

Specific serotonin reuptake inhibitors have been associated with the occurrence of drug-induced parkinsonism, dystonia, dyskinesia, and akathisia. Here, we describe a young female patient with a diagnosis of the moderate depressive episode who developed mandibular dystonia and bruxism with sertraline in the absence of concurrent prescription of medications, which have potential action on the dopaminergic system

Perceived Stigma Towards Psychiatric Illnesses in Mental Health Trainees: A Cross-Sectional Study

The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.Psychiatric disorders have always been seen as character disturbances and hence have always bore higher stigma than many other physical illnesses. In most of the cases the stigma is seen as negative stereotype arising out of poor awareness about the condition. In that case the stigma should reduce with the increase in the awareness about the condition. The current study focused upon exploring the stigma towards psychiatric disorders in the mental health trainees. A sample of 50 students of various mental health care training programs; clinical psychology, psychiatry, psychiatric social work and psychiatric nursing, were evaluated for their perceived stigma of psychiatric disorders using three versions of a tool developed to compare self-stigma, family-stigma, and social-stigma. Our results show that participants experienced significantly different levels of stigma for these levels (F (1.65, 81.26) = 56.64, p < 0.0001, ηp2 = 0.536), with highest level of stigma perceived in relation to self (M = 42.8, SE = 1.53) which was significantly more than both family (M = 30.78, SE = 1.19) and society (M = 29.76, SE = 1.24) conditions. The findings were same irrespective of the specialization i.e. clinical psychology, psychiatry etc. within mental health training programs. Further analysis about the group comparison among the mental health trainees suggested that psychiatric nursing group perceived significantly higher level of overall stigma than any other group of specialization. The findings indicate that better understanding of psychiatric condition alone might not eliminate the stigma attached to it