Family interview for stress and coping in mental retardation (fisc-mr) : a tool to study stress and coping in families of children with mental retardation.

Stress and coping in the families caring for their member with mental retardation has recently received worldwide research attention. There is no comprehensive instrument to study these issues in India. This study reports on development and standardization of a new instrument to fill this lacuna. Family Interview for Stress and Coping in Mental Retardation (FISC - MR), a semi-structured interview schedule, was developed as a part of two years prospective study of efficacy of brief family intervention for 157 children with mental retardation (funded by ICMR). The tool consists of 2 sections - one measuring stress (daily care, emotional, social and financial) and the other measuring mediators of stress or coping strategies (awareness, attitudes, expectations, rearing practices and social support). Results indicate moderate to high reliability (internal consistency, inter-rater reliability and test-retest reliability) and validity (factorial, criterion and construct) of the instrument. It is concluded that FISC -MR is a useful, reliable and valid instrument for both clinical and research purposes.

Subjective wellbeing among police personnel.

To study whether high job stress has 'spill over effect' on other dimensions of life, subjective well being inventory (SWBI) and GHQ were administered to 201 policeman selected randomly from Bangalore city, India. Policemen scored significantly high in all dimensions expect in social support when compared to urban middle class men working in factories. The police who scored low in GHQ had significantly higher scores in all dimensions of SWBI except in social contact. The results indicate that various dimensions of SWB of police are not affected. Psychosocial and job related factors buffering job stress have to be studied and further strengthened.

Clinical and genetic studies in cases of phenylketonuria (pku) and a report of follow up after dietary therapy.

A report is made of cases of phenylketonuria detected at Bangalore along with experiences in the dietary therapy and management of the cases. The need for early detection and early dietary intervention is indicated.

Central dopamine and serotonin turnover in schizophrenia.

Comparison of C.S. F. H. V. A and 5-HIAA levels of 20 Schizophrenics and 9 non-schizophrenic controls revealed no statistically significant difference between HVA levels but the 5-HIAA levels were significantly less in Schizophrenics (p < 0.05) than in controls. The significance of these findings is discussed.

Psychiatric morbidity in a general practice in an Indian city.

Psychiatric morbidity in an Indian general practice was studied using the 12 item version of the General Health Questionnaire to screen 882 patients who represented 9000 consecutive adult patients attending the practice. The questionnaire was valid with a cutting score of 1/2 when compared with section 1 of the standardised Indian Psychiatric Survey Schedule. The probable prevalence of psychiatric morbidity was 35.9%. The general practitioner identified only about 25% of patients. Five of the 12 questions on the General Health Questionnaire had a higher discriminatory capacity, and the performance of the patients on these five questions was valid when compared to section 1 of the Indian Psychiatric Survey Schedule.

Validation of family interaction patterns scale.

A Family Interaction Patterns Scale (FIPS) consisting of 106 items pertaining to six areas of family functioning: leadership, communication, role, reinforcement, cohesiveness, social support system; was standardised by administering it to 30 neurotic depressives, 30 hysterical neurotics, 20 alcoholics and 30 normal, and one of their family members. HIPS mean score for depressives, hystericals, alcoholics and normals were 243.8, 236.67, 262.75 and 133.17 respectively. The means of patient population were statistically significantly different from the normal population. There was no variation in the scores of patient and his/her family member. All six sub scales of FIPS were compared between the groups. The scale had the capacity to discriminate between neurotics and normals and alcoholics. Based on these observations we feel FIPS is a valid tool to measure the quality of family functioning.