Mental health of doctors: A preliminary online survey during the current pandemic

Background: Corona virus disease 2019 pandemic (COVID-19), has posed significant mental health challenges. Psychological morbidities among Indian doctors has not been extensively examined. In order to plan appropriate interventions, it is imperative to know the details of the mental health condition of our doctors especially so during this period of enormous physical and mental challenges brought by the current pandemic. Methodology: The present findings, are from an online survey done to briefly assess the mental health status of doctors. The survey was done, through a questionnaire, generated by the authors, from items of Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI) version 6. Results: A total of 274 responses were received and 242were analysed. Mean age of the participants was 37.21 Years (SD = 10.70). 61.98% of the participants were males. 42.14% were resident doctors, 44.21% were faculty members. Majority of the doctors reported having some psychiatric symptom. Only, 0.83% reported having suicidal ideation. None of the participants were planning to seek a psychiatric consultation, in near future, for the psychiatric problems. There was a positive correlation of psychiatric symptoms, with exposure to COVID-19 duties. Conclusions: Doctors have higher psychological morbidities, but due to various reasons are not willing to address the severity of their symptoms nor are they acknowledging the need for intervention. There is an urgent need, for acceptance and acknowledgement of the psychological problems being faced by this highly demanding, vulnerable population, especially so during the present crisis

A study to assess the magnitude of various minor physical anomalies in bipolar disorders and to compare them between bipolar disorder patients and their first degree relatives

Background: Bipolar disorder appears to be related to anatomic abnormalities in medial temporal lobe, in particular amygdale, prefrontal cortex and cerebellum. Two recent MRI findings have supported a neuro developmental etiology of bipolar disorders.Methods: It was a cross-sectional comparative hospital based study. The subjects were recruited for the study by the purposive sampling technique. The study was conducted at the Institute of Mental Health and Hospital Mathura Road Agra. The study sample consisted of 20 bipolar disorder patients diagnosed as per ICD-10 DCR (WHO, 1992) criteria, 20 first degree relatives, one for each patient. Total sample size is 40.Results: It was observed that in bipolar patients’ maximum anomalies were seen in Mouth (0.35±0.48) head (0.30±0.57) followed by anomalies of eyes (0.25±0.55) hand (0.20±0.41) and ear (0.05±0.22). It was observed that in Bipolar FDRs maximum anomalies were seen in mouth (0.20±0.04) ear (0.15±0.45) head (0.1±0.3) and then anomalies of eye and hand in equal propensity (0.05±0.22) and least anomalies in feet (0.00±0.00).Conclusions: The rate of MPAs in bipolar patients was more than their FDRs but not statically significant. Both sibling groups had fewer MPAs than the patients. When viewed within a vulnerability-stress model, the results are consistent with the theory that MPAs may reflect early, largely extra-genetic, stressful events.