Childhood abuse and anxiety, depression - An interprofessional approach to optimize knowledge and awareness among young adult health professions students of Arunachal Pradesh, India.

BACKGROUND: Child abuse is a major public health concern with deep rooted squeal events on adult mental health. The childhood negligence and abusive events is connected invariably with anxiety and depressive disorders in adult life. OBJECTIVES: The study focused to determine the prevalence of child abuse, and connection of child abuse with depression and anxiety in course of adulthood, and to evaluate the effect of Interprofessional approach on the knowledge and awareness on child abuse and legal polices among young adult students of health professions in Arunachal Pradesh, India. PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING: Four hundred sixty-one young adult health professions students from Tomo Riba Institute of Health and Medical Sciences (TRIHMS) and related health sciences institutes in the Itanagar capital complex region of Arunachal Pradesh between age group of 18-25 years. METHODS: A semi structured self-administered questionnaire was adopted to measure the prevalence of child abuse, Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) questionnaire to grade the severity of depression and Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7) questionnaire to grade severity of anxiety. Interprofessional intervention interactive sessions with a psychologist, psychiatrist, and advocate were held after pre-test. Before and after the intervention, the participants' awareness and knowledge on various types of child abuse& negligence and legal policies were assessed. RESULTS: The overall prevalence of child abuse in any form was 73.42 %. Physical abuse was the most frequent form, accounting for 65.26 %, followed by childhood negligence (62.63 %), emotional abuse (53.15 %), and sexual abuse (23.42 %). Higher incidence of psychological distress with depression (80 %) and anxiety (55.52 %) was observed in participants with previous history of childhood abuse. There was a significant improvement in the knowledge and awareness on various forms of child abuse and negligence (p < 0.05) and legal policies (16.05 % before intervention, 85.90 % after intervention) (p < 0.05) after intervention sessions with interprofessional members. CONCLUSIONS: The interprofessional interactive sessions exhibited significant improvement in the knowledge and awareness in terms of child abuse and policies in all domains. Utmost need and necessity of including implementation of interprofessional intervention interactive sessions or counselling program in academic institutions specially in developing states where there is a lack of awareness and easy access to services.

Patterns of Psychiatric Illness in a Tertiary Care Centre of Arunachal Pradesh: An Observational Study.

Introduction:Monitoring the pattern of psychiatric illness among inpatients is essential for understanding the burden and trends of disease, in addition to designing and developing focused preventive and interventional strategies. Given the significant regional variation in the prevalence of mental illness, the present study evaluated the profile of psychiatric illness among inpatients admitted to a tertiary care center situated in the North East of India. Methods:Information from case records of consecutively admitted patients aged 18 years and above over the preceding three years, coded under the International Classification of Diseases, 10th edition (ICD-10), was reviewed. Details of socio-demographic parameters and psychiatric illness as well as substance use were extracted and represented by using descriptive statistics. Results:There were 371 admissions over the above-mentioned time frame. Subjects had a mean age of 36.5±10.45 years and 80.05% of them were males. Substance use disorders (77.62%) were the most commonly noted among study participants, with the majority being diagnosed with opioid dependence (43.93%) and alcohol dependence (29.92%), followed by tobacco dependence (2.16%). Psychotic disorders (5.12%), anxiety disorders (6.19%) and mood disorders (1.88%) were noted in a much lower proportion than anticipated. More than half (n=248) of subjects were aged 18-34 years. Conclusion:A disproportionate overrepresentation of substance use disorders among psychiatric inpatients in the North Eastern state of Arunachal Pradesh in India contrasts with the profile noted in other parts of the country. Notably affecting the younger age group, the findings of the present study highlight the need for the development of targeted preventive and interventional strategies to address the same. The study could help inform mental health policy initiatives and guide focused mental health care provision. These could include the establishment of centers for addiction medicine, enhancing training in addiction medicine for health professionals, counseling services and development of long-term rehabilitation for those suffering from substance use disorders.