Search

Background: COVID-19 has affected the whole world. Apart from the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on physical health, there has been a significant impact on the mental health of the individuals. To address these mental health concerns, our institute had started a 24/7 national telephonic helpline to enable distressed individuals to reach out and seek help or assistance. Aims: In this article, the authors described the details of 126 tier-2 call backs and the types of psychiatric disorders that were catered to, between March 29, 2020 and May 31, 2020. Methodology: Descriptive analysis was done. Results: The concerns were characterized into five groups: exacerbation of preexisting mental and physical illness (30.9%); known case of mental or physical illness (19%); COVID related mental health concerns (22.2%); administrative or logistic issues (7.1%); new-onset mental health-related concerns or illnesses (15.9%). Majority of the calls (44.4%) were addressed by the second-tier mental health professionals (MHPs) (psychiatrists). Thirty-one percent were referred to the local medical or psychiatric services; 9.5% to the 3rd tier MHPs; 9% were connected to the treating psychiatrist or neurologist in the hospital; and 1.6% were referred to emergency services in the hospital. Conclusions: Using teleservices to address such a huge mental health crisis can be a way ahead to tackle this parallel menace brought about by COVID-19. However, the effectiveness of these helplines needs to be assessed and monitored at frequent intervals.

This manuscript reports the impact of Coronavirus Disease 2019 on social stigma; verbatims demonstrating this impact on society and the potential responses or measures that can be taken as individuals and mental health professionals to combat stigma.

A 45-year-old wandering female diagnosed with severe mental illness was brought by the public to the tertiary government mental health hospital for treatment, and she was later successfully reunited with her family through a psychosocial approach.

Background: Alcohol dependence syndrome (ADS) is a progressive condition stemming from severe alcohol use, where the person becomes increasingly reliant on alcohol, loses control over its use and will have to increase the quantity of consumption to get the same effect, making it extremely difficult to stop. This affects various aspects of a person's life such as the physical health, financial, interpersonal, social, and ethical life. It also induces negative behaviors such as aggressiveness, risk-taking attitudes such as drunken driving, legal issues, and withdrawal from the responsibilities at work and household. Even if the person decides to stop, various stressors might make them fall back into the same habit. Criticality, hostility, and emotional overinvolvement of the family members toward the patients of ADS, commonly referred to as expressed emotion (EE), are some of the major causes for relapse Materials and Methods: The sample comprised 31 subjects, who were selected convenience sampling. The data were collected at a private tertiary care neuropsychiatry hospital, Bengaluru. Ethics approval and informed consent were taken. Family Emotional Involvement and Criticism Scale and sociodemographic schedule were used. Results: The perceived criticism was found to be higher (24.6 ± 1.94) than emotional overinvolvement (18 ± 4.48) among ADS caregivers, and the total score of the EE revealed that there was higher score (42.06 ± 5.2) than the average score of the scale. Conclusion: The study highlights the need for addressing EE in the families of patients with ADS and to plan for comprehensive psychosocial interventions.

Introduction: Bipolar affective disorder (BPAD) is a severe mental illness causing significant problems in the lives of individuals with the disorder and those who care for them as well are. Most of the time people with mental illness are taken care of by mental health professionals, while little priority is given to their caregivers. There are numerous studies in India attempting to understand the impact of illness on caregivers and the problems faced by the caregivers of persons with BPAD. Methods: The study aimed to assess the family caregivers' stress and burden among caregivers of persons with BPAD at a tertiary care center in Dharwad, India. Descriptive research design and simple random sampling was used for recruiting 50 samples. Apart from sociodemographic schedule, burden assessment scale and perceived stress scale (PSS) were used for data collection. Results: The mean age of caregivers was 44.76 years. The average duration of illness of the patients was 9.80 years and their mean annual income was 35,500 rupees reported in the study. The mean score of impact of wellbeing subscale was higher (11.34) when compared with other sub scales of the burden assessment scale, and the overall score of burden assessment scale (31.82) indicated high levels of burden. PSS mean was 21.44, indicating high stress levels. Conclusion: The study concludes that burden and perceived stress were elevated among the caregivers of people with BPAD during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Background: The COVID-19 is a viral communicable disease and the World Health Organization declared it as a public health emergency of international concern. This pandemic has challenged the entire world including India's health-care system and resources. It is a devastating recurrence in people with underlying health issues or comorbidities, eventually resulting in mortality. Comorbidities including both medical and psychological disorders among COVID patients have a large amount of impact on the individual's mental health as well as functioning. Materials and Methods: The study comprised 800 hospitalized COVID-19 patients during the first wave from North Karnataka region in India. The data were collected using a structured interview schedule through hospital telephones. The ethical approval was obtained from the Institute Research Ethics Committee. Results: The mean age of the hospitalized COVID patients was 41.02 ± 15.21, and the mean age of comorbidity was 47.69 ± 14.84. Following medical comorbidities such as diabetes (9.3%), hypertension (9.3%), cancer (1.8%), diabetes + hypertension (2.1%), and asthma (0.9%) and psychological comorbidities such as anxiety (3.8%) and depression (3.3%) were found among the hospitalized COVID patients during the first wave. Conclusions: It can be observed that comorbidity may increase the risk of death among COVID patients who were hospitalized and appropriate medical and psychological interventions can be provided for various co comorbidities at the earliest to prevent further defuncting and distress caused by the pandemic.