Psychiatric morbidity in absentees in industry.

BACKGROUND: Absenteeism refers to a worker's unscheduled absence from the workplace. Around the world, a large share of mental disorders can be attributed to work productivity losses. Despite industries working on improvement in employees' wages, better work environment and improved health care to improve their mental health. Absenteeism continues to be a global burden. AIM: The aim of the study was to explore the factors influencing absenteeism. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A sample size of 100 workers was selected and standardized, and reliable research tools were employed. Factors influencing absenteeism such as the sociodemographic factors, personality traits, psychiatric morbidity, family typology, and interactions were studied using relevant scales, i.e., Eysenck's Personality Inventory and Family Typology by Batti and Channabasavanna. RESULTS: Study found that absentees were more emotionally stable, whereas regulars were found to be emotionally unstable. Factors were found to be associated with absenteeism such as low income, 11-20 years of service, low mean neuroticism score, chronic physical disease, high psychiatric morbidity among the workers, egoistic and anomic family typology. This study reveals that a significantly higher proportion of absentees had a low pay scale. Paradoxically, a high proportion of absenteeism had a longer duration service, indicating that the low pay scales could have resulted from disciplinary actions against absentees, like loss of increments, etc. CONCLUSION: Psychosis, alcoholism, and chronic physical illnesses are among the illnesses which contribute to absenteeism.

Violence against doctors: A viral epidemic?

Violence against doctors at their workplace is not a new phenomenon. However, in recent times, reports of doctors getting thrashed by patients and their relatives are making headlines around the world and are shared extensively on social media. Almost every doctor is worried about violence at his/her workplace, and very few doctors are trained to avoid or deal with such situations. This article aims to discuss the risk factors associated with violence against doctors and the possible steps at a personal, institutional, or policy level that are needed to mitigate such incidents.

Creativity and psychopathology: Two sides of the same coin?

The Mad Genius is a recurring stereotype of contemporary cultural expression, and many famous personalities and creators have suffered from psychopathology. Creativity and genius may be a sought-after trait; however, it is also commonly believed to be associated with psychopathology. This has been examined, starting with Lombroso's investigation of genius and madness in 1800s followed by a dearth of literature debating the association between the two. This evidence for this polarizing issue ranges from psychometric to neuroscientific disciplines and creates ambiguity neither refuting nor accepting this association completely. Through this article, we briefly review the literature on this subject and try to decipher what is written in between the lines, how creativity and psychopathology may fuel each other, and what may be its clinical implications.

Child who presented with hematohidrosis (sweating blood) with oppositional defiant disorder.

Hematohidrosis is a very rare condition of sweating blood. A child's case who presented to us with hematohidrosis is reported. There are only few reports in the literature. A 10-year-old boy presented to our hospital with a history of repeated episodes of oozing of blood from navel, eyes, ear lobules, and nose. During the examination, it disappeared as soon as it was mopped leaving behind no sign of trauma only to reappear within a few seconds. Bleeding time, clotting time, and prothrombin time were normal. Patient was diagnosed with hematohidrosis and oppositional defiant disorder clinically. Management of this condition at our center is discussed below.