The 187 suicide occurring in the city of Jhansi, over a period of two years (1986-87), gave an annual incidence rate of 29 per lakh population. The rate was higher for females (34 per lakh) than for males (24 per lakh). The commonest age group was the third decade (51.3%), followed by the second (28.4%); the average age of males being significantly higher. The married committed suicide more often. Domestic strife (38.3%) and mental illness (23.5%) were the common cause-, while no causative factor could be discerned in 38.5% of the cases. The two sexes differed significantly with respect to burning and getting run over by train as the preferred method of suicide. Burning was largely a female preserve while getting run over by train was used almost exclusively by males. Poisoning and hanging were used slightly more often by males while drowning was used a bit more frequently by females.

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One hundred and ten male heroin addicts were administered 'Eysenck Personality Questionnaire' a self reporting measure. High scores on psychoticism, neuroticism and lie scale and low scores on extroversion in heroin addicts as compared to normal controls (n=50) were observed in this study which were comparable with those reported earlier. Further, it appears that high neuroticism scores are more consistent feature of heroin addicts than deviation on extraversion. Also an attempt to uncover epidemiological factors underlying heroin addiction has been made.

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The study was conducted on 12 professionals and 12 trained lay counsellors. The two groups were matched for sex (7 males and 5 females) and their mean age was 27.5 and 32.25 years respectively. Ten hypothetical problem situationts were given and empathy was assessed using, accurate empathy rating scale by two independent raters. The inter rater reliability was found to be quite high (.61 significant at .01 level). There was no significant difference between the two groups and the sex groups. On comparing the results with the scores on audiotaped interview, there, was no significant correlations obtained between the two methods. Problems involved in assessing empathy from questionnaire and suggestions for further research are also discussed.

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One hundred and ten female patients in the age group of 16 to 65 years, attending gynecology out-patient clinic were screened for psychiatric disorders. The psychiatric morbidity among patients attending gynecology clinic was found to be 49 percent, as compared to 26 percent in a sample of general population (control group). This study supports the view, that there is a higher psychiatric morbidity among patients attending gynecology clinic, and it is associated with lower socio-economic status, education and gynaecological conditions especially menstrual irregularities and pelvic pain.

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A case of right anterior thalamic infarction which presented with a picture of pseudo-pseudodementia of the type described by Lishman is presented here and discussed with relevance to diagnosis and management of such unusual clinical problems.

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This is a study involving 15 prisoners referred for opinion and mental abnormality. Retrospective analysis of the crime and the situation prevailing helped to develop insight into the homicidal act. In the insanity related homicide, the significant differences were absence of malice aforethought, application of excessive violence, presence of impulsivity and lack of meticulous planning. Murder by the psychotic was invariably a lonely passive affair, the actor lacking guilt feeling, insight, judgement in and towards the criminal situation.

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The prevalence of use of medicines with a known potential to cause depression among 40 elderly depressives and 20 matched controls was studied. Results showed that the prevalence was not significantly different between the two groups. Within the patient group, the prevalence was independent of the variables of sex, nature and severity of depression, and history of previous episodes of affective illness. While the results indicate that depressive illnesses secondary to the use of medicines are not common, the possibility of a medicine rarely inducing depression cannot be ruled out.

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50 women undergoing hysterectomy at Smt. Surheta Kriplani Hospital, New Delhi, when compared with age and parity matched 25 control cases on neuroticism and depression scales showed statistically insignificant difference at various points of time. The improvement in both groups was insignificant one week after procedure but became significant after I weeks (p<0.01). The neuroticism or depression in study cases was hardly attributable to hysterectomy. The marital as well as social adjustments after 4 weeks of procedure were either unchanged or improved. It is emphasized that an attempt should be made to identify the patients who are more prone to get psychiatric disturbance in order to prevent or minimise these psychiatric disturbances.

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This paper describes a three day crisis resolution unit within the confines of the psychiatric emergency service of a general hospital. It utilizes a crisis model of acute intervention, time limited psychotherapeutic approach combined with family therapy, and psychotropic meditation when indicated. One hundred thirty six consecutive admissions were rev ie.wed. 19% were discharged within 72 hours, and 51% required further hospitalization. Seventy seven percent of the patients discharged had involved families (significant others) in the treatment process, in comparison with only 28% family involvement with those patients who needed further hospitalization. This may be even more significant for psychotic patients who were discharged (14/18 family involvement) versus those who needed long hospitalization (13/50 family involvement).

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The present study investigated behaviour pattern in seventy five patients of electrocardiographically proved coronary heart disease and compared with age and sex matched seventy five normal controls To measure type A-B behaviour in both groups a short rating scale developed by R. W. Bortner was used. It was found that patients of coronary heart disease had significantly higher score on Bortner Rating Scale and suffered more often with type A behaviour pattern as compared with normal controls. The significant correlation was also observed between type A behaviour and myocardial injury and hypercholesterolemia. No significant correlation was found between type A behaviour with age, sex, hypertension and parental history of coronary heart disease.

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An 11 year old boy presented with 30 day continuous cycles of bipolar illness occurring regularly for 9 months without any genetic predisposition for affective illness. The patient was refractory to Lithium but Carbamazepine proved to be highly effective. The various unusual features of the case are highlighted and discussed.

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Much of the non-psychotic mental morbidity in primary care goes undetected by the primary care health personnel. This is often because of the non-specific somatic nature of the presenting complaints of these patients and the difficulty on the part of the primary care physician to elicit specific emotional symptoms to screen psychiatric problems. This paper describes the development of the 7-item Primary care Psychiatric Questionnaire (PPQ.) which, by requiring to elicit only the non-specific symptoms, could overcome this practical difficulty. This new screening method has been standardised against the Self Report Questionaaire-20-item version which is commonly used in primary care.

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Patients presenting with bodily symptoms without any demonstrable physical basis were studied. Somatisation was observed in more than 80% of the sample studied. A higher percentage of somatisers were found in females, age groups 35-44 and above 55, unmarried and illiterate groups. Housewives formed the largest group of somatisers amongst different occupations. Common diagnoses amongst somatisers were neurotic depression, hysterical neurosis, anxiety neurosis and endogenous depression.

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Smooth pursuit eye movements (SPEM) has been reported to be abnormal in schizophrenic patients. 30 schizophrenic patients and 15 normal subjects were examined for the quality of their smooth pursuit performance. 73.33% of the schizophrenics and 40% of the normal subjects had 'impaired' pursuit performance. The significance of the findings has been discussed.

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