The study for sources of stress and management among medical students

Background: In recent years there has been a growing appreciation of the issues of quality of life and stresses involved medical training as this may affect their learning and academic performance. This study was carried out to assess the prevalence of sources and severity of stress and coping strategies among medical students.Methods: A questionnaire-based study was carried out among the undergraduate medical students of Himalayan Institute of medical sciences, Jolly grant, Dehradun from July July 2015 to January 2016. The questionnaire consisted of questions on the basis of Academic, Intrapersonal, Interpersonal, Social Related Stressors and also various methods adopted by them to overcome stress.Results: Out of 150 students only 136 (90%) responded. All the participants were of first and second professional MBBS course. Overall 56% Students felt studies are contributing to stress followed by 26% due to college, 18% due to friends and 9% due to family pressure. Due to academic stress performance anxiety for upcoming examinations was felt by 59% of the students. Among the personal stressor 58% experienced health related issues and their effect on level of fitness. Stress relievers like 67% of the total students preferred watching movies, while their preference for listening to music was observed in 38% to relieve stress.Conclusions: It was concluded that students have a high level of academic stress followed by the social and personal stress. Since the stressors cannot be permanently eliminated, authors have to necessarily devise efficient methods for managing them.

PCR-based detection of enterotoxigenic isolates of Bacillus cereus from tropical seafood.

Background & objectives: Bacillus cereus is an important enterotoxigenic food borne pathogen. The present study was undertaken to assess the occurrence of B. cereus in tropical fish and evaluation of virulent gene specific PCR for differentiation of diarrhoeal enterotoxin producing isolates of B. cereus from non enterotoxigenic isolates. Methods: Selective plating on polymixin-pyruvate-egg yolk-mannitol-bromocresol purple agar (PEMPA) was used for isolation of B. cereus from finfish, prawn and clams. Enterotoxin producing ability of all 42 isolates obtained from the samples was judged by reverse passive latex agglutination (RPLA) test and the presence of different virulent genes i.e. hbla, bceT and entFM was screened by PCR. Results: B. cereus and enterotoxigenic B. cereus were found to be in 36.7 and 29.41 per cent of fish samples, respectively. All the diarrhoeal enterotoxin producing isolates showed the presence of hbla gene, but hbla gene was not present in any of the non-enterotoxigenic isolates tested in this study. Interpretation & conclusions: Our findings indicated that hbla gene specific PCR can be employed for differentiation of enterotoxigenic B. cereus isolates from non-enterotoxigenic isolates.

Unethical relationship between doctors and drugs companies.

Medicine is a noble profession. The primary aim of medical profession is to render service to humanity. Financial gain is a subordinate consideration.[1] But it has been observed globally that medical practitioners in conjunction with pharmaceutical companies are prescribing and thereby promoting unnecessary drugs just for the sake of monetary gains. This article reviews the salient aspects of the relationship between doctors and drugs companies and its future consequences.