Immediate effect of single session Mula Banda practice on cognitive functions among adolescents

Background: Adolescence is a critical period of neurobiological processes that underlie higher cognitive functions and social and emotional behaviour; cognitive functions are important skills for academic performance. Today’s adolescents are struggling to enhance their cognitive abilities due to various new demands and options. There is also an increased academic stress & peer pressure to succeed in school, partly due to increased competition and also due to a diverse range of options available. Techniques to improve these skills are not taught either in education courses. Any practice which can improve these skills will be of value in schools, universities, and workplaces. The objective of the study was to determine whether single session of Mula Banda could enhance the cognitive functions. Material & Methods: 30 adolescents who had enrolled for the single session Mula Banda intervention. Their ages ranged between 12 to 18 years (group average ±S.D., 14.4±1.3 years; both genders). Those who have eye problem, neurological problems and mental illness, and those who are not willing to participate were excluded. Mula Banda was given for 10 minutes in a single session.  Before and after the session, all participants completed DLST, SLCT and DVT tests. Result:  single session Mula Banda practice showed significant change in DLST scores, increase (P-value< 0.000) in total attempted score, significant increase (P-value<0.000) in net score, significant reduction in wrongly attempted score (P-value<0.000). Significant change in SLCT scores, significant increase (P-value<0.000) in total attempted score, similarly, significant increase (P-value<.000) in net score, significant reduction in wrongly attempted score (P-value<0.000). Also, significant change in DVT scores, significant increase (P-value<0.000) in total time taken, similarly, significant reduction (P-value<.000) in errors. Conclusion: findings suggest that even a single session Mula Banda practice could enhance the cognitive function among adolescents

Effect of Cyclic Meditation on selected Psychological Variables among Corporate Employees

Background: Today’s competitive work environment has created enormous amount of stress on corporate employees, the impact of this as seen on impaired cognitive Functions and compromised mental health, there is a connection between cognition impairment with occupational stress. Mind-body techniques such as cyclic meditation (CM) have shown to improve cognitive functions, reduce stress and enhancing psychological wellbeing. The objective of this study was to determine whether cyclic meditation enhances the cognitive functions. Material and Methods: Thirty-five participants who had enrolled in a fifteen days cyclic meditation program. Their ages ranged between 20 and 60 years (group average ±S.D. 38.4±9.3 years, both genders). Those who have any chronic illness and mental illness, and those who are not willing to participate were excluded. Cyclic meditation is given for 15 days, 40 min./day. At baseline and following fifteen days, all participants completed DLST and SLCT. Results: cyclic meditation program showed significant change in DLST scores, increase (P-value< 0.001) in total attempted score, significant increase (P-value<0.001) in net score. Significant change in SLCT scores, significant increase (P-value<0.001) in total attempted score, similarly, significant increase (P-value<0.001) in net score, but there was no reduction in wrong attempt scores on both the tests (P-value >0.05). Conclusions: The fifteen days of cyclic meditation practice was successful in enhancing the cognitive function among corporate employees

The Impact of Short-term Integrated Yoga practice on Psychological wellbeing in special educators of individual with special needs

Background: Special educators face unprecedented work conditions and expectations that affect their psychological wellbeing and professional outcome as well. This study examines the growing evidence that even a short-term Integrated yoga practice enhance psychological wellbeing among special educators by reducing their stress, anxiety and depression levels. Materials and Methods: Special educators were recruited based on inclusion and exclusion criteria (n=20) age ranging between 25-50 years (Mean35±6.3) for a single group interventional pre-post study design: Integrated yoga module (included postures, breathing practices, relaxation and mediation) was given for a period of 8 weeks. The subjects were assessed on day 1 pre and post intervention on day 60 on perceived stress scale (PSS), Beck’s depression inventory (BDI-II) and Beck’s Anxiety Inventory (BAI). Results: After 8 weeks of Integrated yoga practice there was asignificant reduction in anxiety scores (P < 0.000), depression scores (P < 0.000) and perceived stress levels (P < 0.000) respectively compared to baseline by wilcoxon signed rank test. Conclusions: The results of this study suggest that even a short-term integrated yoga intervention that can enhance psychological wellbeing of the special educators

Yoga therapy for Metabolic Syndrome - A Review

Metabolic syndrome is a collection of risk factors that increase the chance of developing heart disease, stroke, and diabetes. Lifestyle changes like losing weight, exercise, and dietary changes can help prevent or reverse metabolic syndrome. Metabolic syndrome is now considered as a serious public health problem. It is estimated that 20 - 25% of the world adult population is suffering from this disorder. Yet most recommendations currently focus on diet and exercise and do not consider stress reduction strategies. Yoga is a effective tool for stress management, that may reduce blood pressure (BP) increase parasympathetic activation. In this review, we examined the basic principles of Pancha Kosha (five sheaths of human existence) concept from an Indian scripture Taittiriya Upanishad and the pathophysiology of a disease from the Yogic approach of Yoga Vasistha’s Adhi (originated from mind) and Vyadhi (ailment/disease) concept and focused on Yoga and HPA axis. Based on these concepts, a Yoga module is recommended as a remedial therapy to manage Metabolic Syndrome

Mortality from suicide and other external cause injuries in China: a prospective cohort study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Premature death from suicide is a leading cause of death worldwide. However, the pattern and risk factors for suicide and other external cause injuries are not well understood. This study investigates mortality from suicide and other injuries and associated risk factors in China.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A prospective cohort study of 169,871 Chinese adults aged 40 years and older was conducted. Mortality due to suicide or other external cause injuries was recorded.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Mortality from all external causes was 58.7/100,000 (72.3 in men and 44.4 in women): 14.1/100,000 (14.2 in men and 14.2 in women) for suicide and 44.6/100,000 (58.1 in men and 30.2 in women) for other external cause injuries. Transport accidents (17.2/100,000 overall, 23.4 in men and 10.8 in women), accidental poisoning (7.5/100,000 overall, 10.2 in men and 4.8 in women), and accidental falls (5.7/100,000 overall, 6.5 in men and 5.0 in women) were the three leading causes of death from other external cause injuries in China. In the multivariable analysis, male sex (relative risk [RR] 1.56, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.03-2.38), age 70 years and older (2.27, 1.29-3.98), living in north China (1.68, 1.20-2.36) and rural residence (2.82, 1.76-4.51) were associated with increased mortality from suicide. Male sex (RR 2.50, 95% CI 1.95-3.20), age 60-69 years (1.93, 1.45-2.58) and 70 years and older (3.58, 2.58-4.97), rural residence (2.29, 1.77-2.96), and having no education (1.56, 1.00-2.43) were associated with increased mortality from other external cause injuries, while overweight (0.60, 0.43-0.83) was associated with decreased risk of mortality from other external cause injuries.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>External cause mortality has become a major public health problem in China. Developing an integrated national program for the prevention of mortality due to external cause injuries in China is warranted.</p

Packages of Care for Depression in Low- and Middle-Income Countries

In the first in a series of six articles on packages of care for mental disorders in low- and middle-income countries, Neerja Chowdary and colleagues discuss the treatment of depression

Cross-National Analysis of the Associations among Mental Disorders and Suicidal Behavior: Findings from the WHO World Mental Health Surveys

Using data from over 100,000 individuals in 21 countries participating in the WHO World Mental Health Surveys, Matthew Nock and colleagues investigate which mental health disorders increase the odds of experiencing suicidal thoughts and actual suicide attempts, and how these relationships differ across developed and developing countries

Exploring UK medical school differences: the MedDifs study of selection, teaching, student and F1 perceptions, postgraduate outcomes and fitness to practise

BACKGROUND: Medical schools differ, particularly in their teaching, but it is unclear whether such differences matter, although influential claims are often made. The Medical School Differences (MedDifs) study brings together a wide range of measures of UK medical schools, including postgraduate performance, fitness to practise issues, specialty choice, preparedness, satisfaction, teaching styles, entry criteria and institutional factors. METHOD: Aggregated data were collected for 50 measures across 29 UK medical schools. Data include institutional history (e.g. rate of production of hospital and GP specialists in the past), curricular influences (e.g. PBL schools, spend per student, staff-student ratio), selection measures (e.g. entry grades), teaching and assessment (e.g. traditional vs PBL, specialty teaching, self-regulated learning), student satisfaction, Foundation selection scores, Foundation satisfaction, postgraduate examination performance and fitness to practise (postgraduate progression, GMC sanctions). Six specialties (General Practice, Psychiatry, Anaesthetics, Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Internal Medicine, Surgery) were examined in more detail. RESULTS: Medical school differences are stable across time (median alpha = 0.835). The 50 measures were highly correlated, 395 (32.2%) of 1225 correlations being significant with p < 0.05, and 201 (16.4%) reached a Tukey-adjusted criterion of p < 0.0025. Problem-based learning (PBL) schools differ on many measures, including lower performance on postgraduate assessments. While these are in part explained by lower entry grades, a surprising finding is that schools such as PBL schools which reported greater student satisfaction with feedback also showed lower performance at postgraduate examinations. More medical school teaching of psychiatry, surgery and anaesthetics did not result in more specialist trainees. Schools that taught more general practice did have more graduates entering GP training, but those graduates performed less well in MRCGP examinations, the negative correlation resulting from numbers of GP trainees and exam outcomes being affected both by non-traditional teaching and by greater historical production of GPs. Postgraduate exam outcomes were also higher in schools with more self-regulated learning, but lower in larger medical schools. A path model for 29 measures found a complex causal nexus, most measures causing or being caused by other measures. Postgraduate exam performance was influenced by earlier attainment, at entry to Foundation and entry to medical school (the so-called academic backbone), and by self-regulated learning. Foundation measures of satisfaction, including preparedness, had no subsequent influence on outcomes. Fitness to practise issues were more frequent in schools producing more male graduates and more GPs. CONCLUSIONS: Medical schools differ in large numbers of ways that are causally interconnected. Differences between schools in postgraduate examination performance, training problems and GMC sanctions have important implications for the quality of patient care and patient safety

The Analysis of Teaching of Medical Schools (AToMS) survey: an analysis of 47,258 timetabled teaching events in 25 UK medical schools relating to timing, duration, teaching formats, teaching content, and problem-based learning

BACKGROUND: What subjects UK medical schools teach, what ways they teach subjects, and how much they teach those subjects is unclear. Whether teaching differences matter is a separate, important question. This study provides a detailed picture of timetabled undergraduate teaching activity at 25 UK medical schools, particularly in relation to problem-based learning (PBL). METHOD: The Analysis of Teaching of Medical Schools (AToMS) survey used detailed timetables provided by 25 schools with standard 5-year courses. Timetabled teaching events were coded in terms of course year, duration, teaching format, and teaching content. Ten schools used PBL. Teaching times from timetables were validated against two other studies that had assessed GP teaching and lecture, seminar, and tutorial times. RESULTS: A total of 47,258 timetabled teaching events in the academic year 2014/2015 were analysed, including SSCs (student-selected components) and elective studies. A typical UK medical student receives 3960 timetabled hours of teaching during their 5-year course. There was a clear difference between the initial 2 years which mostly contained basic medical science content and the later 3 years which mostly consisted of clinical teaching, although some clinical teaching occurs in the first 2 years. Medical schools differed in duration, format, and content of teaching. Two main factors underlay most of the variation between schools, Traditional vs PBL teaching and Structured vs Unstructured teaching. A curriculum map comparing medical schools was constructed using those factors. PBL schools differed on a number of measures, having more PBL teaching time, fewer lectures, more GP teaching, less surgery, less formal teaching of basic science, and more sessions with unspecified content. DISCUSSION: UK medical schools differ in both format and content of teaching. PBL and non-PBL schools clearly differ, albeit with substantial variation within groups, and overlap in the middle. The important question of whether differences in teaching matter in terms of outcomes is analysed in a companion study (MedDifs) which examines how teaching differences relate to university infrastructure, entry requirements, student perceptions, and outcomes in Foundation Programme and postgraduate training