Fractured narratives of psy disciplines and the LGBTQIA+ rights movement in India: A critical examination

In 2018, a day before the Supreme Court of India commenced hearing the curative petition on Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code (which criminalised “carnal intercourse against the order of nature”), the Indian Psychiatric Society (IPS) issued an official statement that homosexuality is not a mental pathology. In 2014, a year after the top court recriminalised homosexuality, the then IPS president had termed it as a pathology requiring treatment. By examining articles on LGBTQIA+ rights published in two flagship Indian journals in psychiatry and clinical psychology, position statements by professional bodies, and international and national developments in human rights mechanisms, we argue that psychiatry’s voice for human rights protection of the marginalised has been akin to whispering sweet nothings in tune with the juridico-penal system. In turn, clinical psychology appears to huddle with biomedical psychiatry without raising its voice against coercive and traumatising practices within mainstream technocratic psychiatry. We seek to explore the troubled relationship between mainstream psy disciplines and LGBTQIA+ persons characterised by psychological evasion: failure of mainstream psy disciplines to take up sensitive, socio-political issues like same sex love in a broader human rights framework leading to individualisation- pathologisation complex which further side-lines persons living on the margins of society.

Not All Children with Cystic Fibrosis Have Abnormal Esophageal Neutralization during Chemical Clearance of Acid Reflux / 대한소아소화기영양학회지

PURPOSE: Acid neutralization during chemical clearance is significantly prolonged in children with cystic fibrosis, compared to symptomatic children without cystic fibrosis. The absence of available reference values impeded identification of abnormal findings within individual patients with and without cystic fibrosis. The present study aimed to test the hypothesis that significantly more children with cystic fibrosis have acid neutralization durations during chemical clearance that fall outside the physiological range. METHODS: Published reference value for acid neutralization duration during chemical clearance (determined using combined impedance/pH monitoring) was used to assess esophageal acid neutralization efficiency during chemical clearance in 16 children with cystic fibrosis (3 to <18 years) and 16 age-matched children without cystic fibrosis. RESULTS: Duration of acid neutralization during chemical clearance exceeded the upper end of the physiological range in 9 of 16 (56.3%) children with and in 3 of 16 (18.8%) children without cystic fibrosis (p=0.0412). The likelihood ratio for duration indicated that children with cystic fibrosis are 2.1-times more likely to have abnormal acid neutralization during chemical clearance, and children with abnormal acid neutralization during chemical clearance are 1.5-times more likely to have cystic fibrosis. CONCLUSION: Significantly more (but not all) children with cystic fibrosis have abnormally prolonged esophageal clearance of acid. Children with cystic fibrosis are more likely to have abnormal acid neutralization during chemical clearance. Additional studies involving larger sample sizes are needed to address the importance of genotype, esophageal motility, composition and volume of saliva, and gastric acidity on acid neutralization efficiency in cystic fibrosis children.

Rare Case of Multifocal Cutaneous Tuberculosis Verrucosa Cutis: Posing Clinical and Histopathological Diagnostic Dilemma.

Introduction: Tuberculosis is an ancient universal health problem, with cutaneous tuberculosis being a rare extra pulmonary form that accounts for only 0.15-2%. Here we report a case of elderly female diagnosed with multifocal, multicentric Tuberculosis verrucosa cutis. Presentation of Case: Sixty nine year old female presented to the skin out-patient department (OPD) at a tertiary care center, with chief complaints of multiple, multifocal asymptomatic raised verrucous lesions initially over the right upper limb and face, which insidiously progressed to involve lower limbs and nape of the neck, noticed from past 14 years. Based on histopathological features and clinical examinations, diagnosis of tuberculosis verrucosa cutis was made and patient was started on category 1 anti-tubercular treatment. Discussion and Conclusion: Tuberculosis verrucosa cutis occupies a pre-eminent position across the spectrum of cutaneous tuberculosis. Tuberculosis verrucosa cutis is positioned between lupus vulgaris and scrofuloderma. Tuberculosis verrucosa cutis is no longer the most frequent type of skin tuberculosis. Present rare case of multifocal tuberculosis verrucosa cutis, display histopathologic features in favor of tuberculosis verrucosa cutis. Partial remission in spite of long term anti-tubercular therapy and other modalities of treatment, as in this case report, tuberculosis verrucosa cutis remains a diagnostic dilemma difficult to be solved.