Abstract:Background: In spite of having strong religious and cultural influences, substance abuse among adult population is very high in Punjab, a north Indian state of India in the border of Pakistan. A large majority of individuals with alcohol and substance dependence do not seek treatment. The primary objective of the study was to evaluate the barriers for which people in general population having alcohol and substance dependence do not seek treatment. There is paucity of data in India regarding barriers in treatment of substance abuse. Therefore, it was very tempting to evaluate these barriers.Method: Data was collected from the rural population of a randomly selected village by directly going to their home. Substance dependence was diagnosed by DSM-IVTR criteria in 412 persons and was assessed by Barriers to Treatment Inventory scale (BTI).Results: Among all the barriers 'time conflict' predominated in the study population by 51.2% followed by two other barriers 'absence of problem' (48.8%) and 'fear to treatment' (40.3%). Admission difficulty and poor treatment availability were relatively less prominent barriers. Female substance dependents had major problem with privacy (87.5%), fear to treatment (75%) and absence of problem (75%).Conclusion: This study shows that there are several barriers, certain beliefs, social influences and obligations in the population for which people can't take treatment. Social stereotypes and fear to treatment due to poor health services add further vulnerability. Minimization of the barriers should be done by changes in education, screening, outreach, detection, and referral patterns in alcohol & substance abuse treatment delivery systems.
Background:Psychiatric problems in children are rising and reported cases represent only the tip of the iceberg; large number remains unreported in India. There is limited data on childhood mental disorders and mental health needs in Northern-India.Aims and Objective:The main objective of this research was to study the extent and nature of psychiatric disorders in school children in a defined geographical area and to study their psychosocial correlates.Materials and Methods:In this cross sectional study, Childhood Psychopathology Measurement Schedule (CPMS) was used to measure the magnitude of 982 students in the age group of 10-15 years from four randomly selected schools in a city of North India. Screening stage was followed by detailed evaluation stage in which children were diagnosed by ICD-10 criteria. Statistical analysis was done by percentage and Chi-square test.Results:The results showed that among 982 students, 199 (20.2%) had psychiatric morbidity. Most of them were in the age group of 13-14 yrs, from middle income group and were second in birth order. No significant sexual preference was found regarding distribution of the disorders. Specific phobia; other non organic sleep disorders like sleep talking, bruxism; tension headache found to be the most prevalent disorders followed by sleep terror, hyperkinetic disorder, pica, enuresis.Conclusion:Epidemiological studies should be started early in childhood and carried longitudinally for development of preventive, promotional and curative programme in the community.
Antipsychotic agents are used for various indications in the treatment of psychiatric disorders. Despite their proven roles in multiple conditions, the treatment-emergent side effects of antipsychotic medications, such as metabolic side effects, are often the limiting factor for their long-term and short-term uses. Moreover, antipsychotic medications are often criticized for being less effective in treating different disabling symptoms such as negative symptoms of schizophrenia. As a result, the search for safer and more efficacious antipsychotic agents is ongoing. Newer antipsychotic agents are gaining attention related to emerging efficacy and tolerability data in treating neuropsychiatric conditions. In this review, we attempt to appraise the scientific data on psychopharmacology, safety profile, and efficacy of the newer additions to the list of second-generation antipsychotics, namely brexpiprazole, cariprazine, and lumateperone. We conducted a selective review utilizing PubMed, clinicaltrials.gov, and Cochrane databases to gather appropriate publications, keeping broad inclusion criteria. There were no restrictions on the age of the study population or the year of publication. We also cross-referenced articles and references to capture all existing studies. Our review of the current literature indicates that all three antipsychotic agents appear to be promising based on their short-term studies, while long-term studies remain limited. There is also a need for a head to head comparison between the newer antipsychotics with the other antipsychotic agents to ascertain if the newer agents are any better than the others.
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