Introduction: It is observed that corneal blindness affects 12% of world's population which is amenable to treatment and main causes of corneal blindness are ocular trauma and corneal ulceration. The alarming figures rise every year, keeping India in the lead. The mainstay of treatment for restoring vision in such patients is corneal transplantation. In India awareness about eye donation in public is very low as per literature review. Hence creation of awareness carries paramount importance. Aim: To evaluate the level of awareness regarding eye donation among eye OPD patients at a tertiary hospital. Material and Methods: The present cross sectional study involved 256 patients who presented to the outpatient department of a tertiary care hospital, were willing to participate, were requested to fill the semi-structure pilot tested questionnaire form on eye donation pertaining to awareness of eye donation. But out of 256 patients, 56 patients were not aware of eye donation and filled form incompletely so it was discarded. Thus, total of 200 patients included in the present study. Results: The results showed that 60% participants were not aware of an eye bank in GMC Jammu. Awareness through television was maximum i.e. 50%. About 45% of participants knew that whole eyeball is removed in eye donation. There is no age limit for eye donation was answered by 22% of participants. Only 26% of participants were aware that eyes of any dead person can't be removed for donation whereas 42.5% of participants knew that a person with diabetes/ hypertension can donate eyes. 80% were willing to donate their eyes. Conclusion: There is gross lack of awareness about eye donation among patients attending eye outpatient department. Education on organ donation is a must for the society.Media campaign can play a commendable role to reach out to the masses for optimum benefit. Therefore, there is a need for awareness of eye donation in an effort to increase the procurement of donor corneas.

Background: Management of bipolar disorder include acute management aimed at reducing acute symptoms and maintenance management aimed to reduce the possibility of relapse and to reduce the risk of suicide by addressing incomplete remission, quality of life and functional impairment. Adherence to medication is a problem in bipolar disorder which contributes substantially to efficacy effectiveness gap and the burden of morbidity and mortality of the illness. Aims: To find prevalence of non adherence to treatment in patients of bipolar affective disorder. Materials & Methods: This is a cross-sectional study which was conducted on patients with bipolar affective disorder attending the outpatient department (OPD) of Government Psychiatric Diseases Hospital, Jammu. After meeting inclusion and exclusion criteria, total of 109 patients were selected for the study. Various parameters like age, sex, education, marital status etc were collected. A patient is said to be non adherent to treatment if skips more 3 doses in month and adherent if skips less 3 doses in a month. Results: Prevalence of non adherence to treatment among the bipolar patients was 59.6%. About 76.5% patients below 20 years of age, 61.8% males, 65.8% from rural areas, 75% uneducated, 76.6% unemployed and 64.9% married patients were non adherent to treatment. Patients who had parents as their caretakers had lower rates whereas those belonging to lower socioeconomic class had higher rates of non adherence. Conclusion:There is high prevalence of non adherence among patients suffering from bipolar affective disorder which may affect the treatment outcome and management of these patients and thus it is suggested that better health education to these patients and their attendants should be given in order to maintain compliance to treatment and prevention of relapses.

BackgroundResistance to recommended medications has been an issue in dealing with a number of psychiatric ailments, and it is showing up as an ongoing challenge for contemporary mental health experts. Resistant psychiatric disorders not only increase the morbidity of patients suffering from such severe conditions but also intensify the problems of their caretakers. This has vigorously started to cause the costs to increase for healthcare services. Thanks to electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), we now have an effective method that is proving to be a fruitful final course of action in this micro-epidemic of resistant psychiatric diseases. However, the medical literature of case reports or studies in this niche is scarce. Also, no such comprehensive study has been carried out in the Southeast Asian region to date for the assessment of the effectiveness of electroconvulsive therapy in patients with medication-resistant psychiatric disorders.AimTo assess the effectiveness of ECT in medication-resistant psychiatric patients at the post-ECT course, three-month follow-up, and six-month follow-up.Materials and methodsThe study was a prospective and interventional study (without controls) conducted in the Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (IMHANS), Srinagar, India. Fifty-six patients with pharmacotherapy-resistant psychiatric disorders were included in the study. The patients were assessed at the end of the ECT course, at the three-month follow-up, and at the six-month follow-up by the Clinical Global Impression (CGI), Montgomery Asberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS), Young Manic Rating Scale (YMRS) and the Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (YBOCS). Improvement was defined with the help of the CGI subscale by comparing the position of the patient at admission to the projected condition with ECT.Statistical analysisAnalysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used for analysis of the quantitative data. For the pair-wise comparison of the groups, the post hoc tests were used. Pearson’s chi-square test was used for analysis of qualitative data. A p-value of < 0.05 was considered to be statistically significant, and all the data analysis was done using SPSS Version 20.0.ResultsThe CGI scale revealed that statistically significant improvement occurred in patients at the end of ECT course, at the three-month follow-up as well as at the six-month follow-up.ConclusionECT should be used for the treatment of pharmacotherapy-resistant psychiatric patients and the benefits can be seen even six months after an ECT course completion. Further work in this field should focus on educating the general public about the usefulness of ECT in the treatment of resistant mental illnesses. The myths related to the so-called psychiatric assault from ECT should be removed.

Background: To study the prevalence of dry eye among the patients of pterygium and to find the clinical correlation between dry eye and pterygium.Methods: The study was conducted at postgraduate department of Ophthalmology of GMC Jammu over a period of one year. 90 pterygium patients and 180 age and sex matched controls presenting to the eye OPD of GMC Jammu were included in the study. The TBUT, Schirmer’s test, basal tear secretion and Rose Bengal staining score were estimated in all patients. A TBUT of less than 10 seconds, a Schirmer’s test of less than 10mm, basal tear secretion of less than 10mm, Rose Bengal staining score of more than 3 were considered abnormal.Results: Redness 57 (63.33%) was the most frequently occurring symptom in pterygium patients followed by cosmosis 49 (54.44%). The mean TBUT, mean Schirmer’s, mean basal secretion and mean Rose Bengal staining score values were 9.88±3.39 seconds, 13.17±4.57mm, 10.11±4.81mm and 3.27±1.85 in pterygium patients and 14.22±3.99 seconds, 16.40±5.21mm, 12.19±5.05mm and 2.49±1.86 in the control group respectively. There was a statistically significant difference in the dry eye results between the pterygium patients and control groups (p<0.001). The odd’s ratio between dry eye and pterygium was 3.83, dry eye was present in 53 pterygium patients.Conclusions: The prevalence of dry eye in pterygium patients was 58.89% which suggests that there is a strong positive clinical correlation between dry eye and pterygium.