Iloperidone – A Newer Antipsychotic.

The optimal treatment of schizophrenia poses a challenge to develop more effective treatments and safer drugs, to overcome poor compliance, discontinuation and frequent switching with available antipsychotics. Iloperidone is a new antipsychotic developed to overcome some of the limitations in the drug treatment of schizophrenia. It has been approved by regulating agencies for use in treatment of adult schizophrenia.

A Study of Psychiatric Symptomatalogy in Dengue Patients.

Introducation : Dengue Fever is an acute febrile infectious caused by dengue virus which is transmitted through mosquito. A fraction of Dengue patients exhibit idengifiable psychiatric symptoms. Aims; The present studywas undertaken with an aim to identify the psychiatric symtoms associated with dengue fever. Material & Methods: The study was carried out in the department of psychiarty, University Collange of medical science (U.C.M.S ) And guru Tegh Bahadur Hospital, a designated tertiary care center for Dengue cases in Delhi. The study period ranged from May 2012 to October 2012. The Study assessed the psychiatric symptomatology in dengue fever and its progression overt the course of dengue. Results During the acute phase, nearly all (90.3%) the patients exhibited thanatophobia. Over 80% of the subjects (most females ) had panic attacks and only less than 15% of these subject needed shor course of anxiolytics. During the recovery phase ( at the end of 1st week ), all the observed psychiatric symptoms decreased both in terms of frequency as well as severity.

A Study of the Prevalence, Socio-Demographic and Clinical Correlates of Metabolic Syndrome (M S) in Drug-naive Patients of Anxiety and Depressive Disorders.

Backgroud: The prevalence of Metabolic Syndrome (MS) and its components is reported to be higher in population with mental illness as compared to general population across al diagnostic categories. There is a paucity of studies on the baseline prevalence of MS and its these studes have produced mixed results. The present study was therefore carried out in patients attending the out-patient (OPD) psychiatry department. Aims and Objective:To find out and compare the prevalence and socio-demographic and clinical correlates of MS in drug native patients of anxiety and depressive disorders. Materials and Methods: Socio-demographic details, were collected and analyzed using appropriate statistical tools. Results and Conclusions: The overall prevalence of metabolic syndrome was 23.5% while it was 46.2% in the depressive group and 9.5% in the anxiety group. 50% of the sample fulfilled at least one criterion for MS. While age, all MS components predicted MS overall; HDL, waist circumference and BMI predicted MS in depressive patient and HDL and triglyceride abnormalities predicted MS in the anxiety group.

Current Scenario of Psychiatric Diagnosis in a Tertiary Care Teaching Hospital.

Background: There is a need to evaluate the pattern of current psychiatric diagnosis in our country with the emergence of DSM-5 and ICD-11. Methods: All consecutive cases visiting a tertiary care teaching hospital in the age group of 10-80 years during November 2011 to February 2012 were recruited for the purpose of the study. Psychiatric diagnosis was made by qualified psychiatrists using semi-structured Performa as per ICD-10 Criteria. Analysis of data was done by using descriptive and inferential statistics. Results: Out of 1000 patients, 54.5 % patients are in the age group of 20-40 years with male to female ratio of 3:2 and married to unmarried ratio of 4:3. 18% patients suffered from psychosis, 6.8 % substance dependence, 3.6 % organic disorders, 12.6 % depression, 20.8 % anxiety disorders, 9.1 % bipolar disorder, 13.9 % psychosexual disorders, neurological disorders 4.6 %, and 9.2% having other psychiatric diagnosis. Conclusions: There is a need to evaluate patients visiting every psychiatric outpatient’s clinic so that changing trends in psychiatric problems, co-morbidities, prescribing patterns in view of the current diagnostic systems and treatment guidelines can be updated with special reference to Indian population.

A Comparative Study of Phenomenology, Psychiatric Co-Morbidities and Global Functioning of People with ADHD from Childhood to Adulthood.

Introduction: Although previously thought to remit largely in adolescence, a growing literature supports the persistence of the disorder and/or associated impairment into adulthood. Studies in India are lacking on ADMD. Aims and Objectives: To compare the phenomenology of ADHD in childhood, adolescence and adulthood, to compare the psychiatric co-morbidities with ADHD in childhood, adolescence and adulthood, to compare the global functioning of subjects with ADHD in childhood, adolescence and adulthood. Methods: A statistical comparison was made between studies done in dept. of psychiatry, CSMMU UP, Lucknow on childhood, adolescent and adult ADHD for its various aspects. Conclusions: Hyperactivity-impulsivity decreases as subjects with ADHD grow up and inattention symptoms become more impairing, ADHD is highly co-morbid across all age groups but the nature of co-morbidities change, functioning of subjects with ADHD improve as they grow older.

A Comparative Study of Social, Adaptive, Relational and Global Functioning of Adolescents with OCD and ADHD.

Aim – Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) are one of the most common childhood and adolescent neuropsychiatric disorders. Adolescents with these disorders experience difficulties and impairments in various domains of life. However studies on functional impairments in adolescents with these disorders are lacking in India. This study was conducted with the aim to study and compare the functional impairments of Indian adolescents suffering with these disorders. Methods – 57 adolescents (36 having ADHD and 21 having OCD) between the age group 13 years to less than 18 years were recruited during the study period. HONOSCA, VABSII and C-GAS were applied to study the social, relational, emotional, adaptive and global functioning of these adolescents. The two groups were compared with each other using appropriate statistical methods. Result – Adolescents with ADHD had significantly greater impairments in the areas of ‘disruptive, antisocial and aggressive behavior’, ‘peer relationships’ and ‘self care and independence’ whereas adolescents with OCD had significantly greater impairments in the areas of ‘emotional and related problems’ and ‘poor school attendance’. Significantly greater number of adolescents with ADHD were below average in their functioning in the ‘receptive’ (77.8%) and ‘written’ (75%) subdomain and overall in the ‘communication’ domain (63.9%) as compared to the adolescents having OCD. Adolescents with ADHD were more impaired in their global functioning as compared to adolescents with OCD. Conclusion - There are important differences in the various correlates of functioning between the two groups of adolescents. The present findings have implications in the planning for treatment intervention in these adolescents to make them more cost effective and efficient.