ABSTRACT
Background: Usage of smart phones is on the rise not top exclude medical students. Stress among medicalstudents is also known due to various reasons. A study to assess addiction to smart phones in medicalstudents and its relation to the perceived stress in them was planned in a tertiary care hospital in centralIndia. There are 2 aims- 1) To study hours of phone and social media use and smart phone addiction inmedical students 2) To study the levels of perceived stress in them and its relation to the levels of smartphone addictionMethods: Medical students willing to participate in the study and those having android phones wereexplained the nature of research study and were enrolled after written and informed consent. They wereasked to install a free application called app usage tracker from play store so as to track their phone usage.Confidentiality of personal information d data was ensured and informed to participants of the study. Datawas collected at end of 7 days. Stress was assessed using perceived stress scale and addiction assessed usingsmart phone addiction scale. Data was tabulated and analysed using SPSS 17.Results: 52 males (51.5%) males and 48 (48.5%) females participated in the study. Mean age of students19.4 years (range 17-26)88.1 % were single while others in a relationship. 56.4% stayed in hostels whileothers in their family. All of them used android phones. The average use of smart phone was 6.5 hours/ day(range 1-14 hours) as calculated by the phone application. Mean score on students on smart phone addictionscale was 36.16 (range 11-60, mean Cut off being 20, indicating most of the participants were addicted totheir smart phones. Mean score on the perceived stress scale was 20.73 indicating that the study participantshad moderate levels of stress (14-26). The correlation between smart phone addiction and the perceivedstress in students was positive and significant.Conclusion: The addiction is thus a matter of concern for medical students and their future. It is alsopertinent to note that, as the study points out, that medical students are continuously under a moderate levelstress. Stressed individuals trying to find solace in their phones are again more vulnerable and at more riskof developing mental illnesses like insomnias, anxiety, depression, substance dependence etc
ABSTRACT
Background: Emergence of atypical antipsychotics has revolutionized the treatment of schizophrenia by exploiting dual actions on serotonin as well as dopaminergic receptors. Still, monotherapy with these agents is insufficient to control cognitive and psychomotor as well as positive and negative symptoms. Hence combination therapy with antipsychotics is common in clinical practice. Objective of current study is to compare the effects of addition of aripiprazole or paliperidone on cognition and psychomotor functions in schizophrenia receiving olanzapine. Methods: This is prospective, double blind, placebo controlled, parallel group study in 90 patients of schizophrenia showing partial or no response to olanzapine measured by Positive And Negative Symptoms Score (PANSS) scale. They were randomly divided to receive adjuvant aripiprazole, paliperidone or placebo for 6 weeks. Results: Combination of aripiprazole and olanzapine shows significant improvement in most of the cognition and psychomotor parameters like attention, perception, verbal memory, thinking and processing as well as motor speed while combination of paliperidone and olanzapine is associated with improvement in only some of the cognitive and psychomotor parameters such as attention, perception and verbal memory only. Both the combinations are efficacious in controlling positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia as assessed by PANSS scale. Conclusions: The best augmenting strategy with for olanzapine nonresponsive patients will be D2 receptor partial agonist like aripiprazole rather than D2 antagonist like paliperidone and other atypical antipsychotic agents for better improvement in cognition and psychomotor domains.
ABSTRACT
Schizophrenia is one of the most debilitating disorders with devastating effects on its victims and their families. Atypical antipsychotics (AAPs) because of their superior efficacy, reduced side effects, & better compliance, have rapidly become the mainstay of treatment. But, because of paucity of research & literature on the long-term metabolic side effect profile of these AAPs in Indian setup, this prospective study has been carried out to compare the effects of olanzapine & risperidone on body weight, body mass index, & blood sugar level in schizophrenic patients. Among 60 newly diagnosed DSM-IV patients of schizophrenia enrolled, it was observed that mean body weight & BMI were significantly increased from baseline to 6 & 12 weeks in both olanzapine (n=30) & risperidone groups (n=30) (P<0.001). Also, mean blood sugar was found to be significantly elevated after 6 & 12 weeks of treatment with olanzapine (P<0.001) but not in risperidone group. Thus, the present study underscores the need for baseline and six weekly monitoring of body weight and blood glucose in routine clinical practice with AAPs.