Nursing students’ attitude towards suicide attempters: A study from rural part of Northern India

Context: Majority of health professionals have unfavorable attitudes towards patients presenting with self‑harm, which further compromises their willingness and outcome of care. Aims: To assess the nursing students’ attitudes toward suicide attempters. Settings and Design: Cross‑sectional study was conducted in two nursing colleges of north India. Material and Methods: Three hundred and eight nursing students were recruited through total enumeration method from May to June 2012. ‘Suicide opinion questionnaire’ was administered to assess their attitudes towards suicide attempters. Statistical Analysis Used: Descriptive statistics was employed with Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 14.0 for Windows. Results: Majority were single females, from urban locality, with the mean age of 20 years. Only minority had previous exposure to suicide prevention programs and management of such cases. Majority of students agreed for mental illness, disturbed family life, and depression as major push to attempt suicide. They held favorable attitude for half of the attitudinal statement, but they were uncertain for rest half of the statements. Conclusions: They generally had favorable attitude towards suicide attempters. Their uncertain response highlights the need for enhancing educational exposure of nursing students and new staff at the earliest opportunity, to carve their favorable attitude towards patients presenting with self‑harm

Constipation in elderly patients with psychiatric disorders

Constipation is a common complaint among the elderly patients with psychiatric disorders because of age.related physiologic and anatomical changes, lifestyle factors, comorbid physical and surgical disorders, medications, including psychotropics, and polypharmacy. Lack of timely reporting by patients as well as inadequate expertise of physician may contribute to significant delay in treatment and poor quality of life. Primary constipation is amenable to lifestyle modification. (dietary changes, exercise, and physical activity), fiber intake, and laxatives when necessary. Secondary constipation should be treated with managing underlying pathology or predisposing factors, including effective treatment of psychiatric disorders and rationalizing psychotropic prescription. This review article focuses on the definition, etiology, assessment, treatment, and prevention of constipation in elderly population with mental illness

Use of opium as antiepileptic in patient with frontal lobe epilepsy: A case report

Frontal lobe epilepsy (FLE) manifests with brief, nocturnal seizures arising in the frontal lobe along with unusual behavioral symptoms or postures, frequently misdiagnosed as a psychogenic nonepileptic seizure (PNES) or a sleep disorder. Ancient literature has rarely mentioned the antiepileptic effect of opium or different opioids. Here we are presenting a case with FLE, though initially diagnosed PNES, who had significant relief in his symptoms on using opium, and this led to opium dependence. Index case further emphasizes concern and caution as misdiagnosis of FLE may lead to substance dependenc

Stress, Burnout, and Coping among First-Year Medical Undergraduates

Background and Objectives Stress, burnout, and coping have been found to be interlinked with each other. Several adverse psychological outcomes have been associated with stress and burnout. Improving coping can decrease the stress and burnout. There is limited literature on perceived stress, coping, and burnout among first-year medical undergraduates from India. With this background, the study aimed to assess perceived stress, coping, and burnout among first-year medical undergraduates. Methods It was a cross-sectional study assessing 100 undergraduates studying in the first year of medical school. Medical Students Stressor Questionnaire, Brief COPE questionnaire, and Maslach burnout inventory–student survey were applied for assessment of perceived stress, burnout, and coping, respectively. Socio-demographic profile was assessed by a semi-structured proforma. Results Majority of students reported facing moderate level of stress in most of the domains, with stress being the highest for the academic aspects and least for social-related and drive- and desire-related areas. The stress was significantly greater in female students. Burnout was identified in 62% students by two-dimensional criteria and 30% by three-dimensional criteria. Among the coping strategies, active coping was most commonly used and substance use was less commonly used. No differences were found in coping between males and females except for active coping, which was significantly better in females. Conclusion The stress was of moderate degree in majority of students and academic stress was the most common stress. Burnout was present in at least one-third of the students. However, majority of the students practiced active coping