Background: Awareness of mental health issues is on the rise among the general population and other disadvantaged populations such as homeless, migrants, and prisoners. Prisoners are a minority whose mental health needs are usually neglected. In comparison to the research done abroad, India has few studies published in this population, and hence, it becomes more important to focus on them to understand better. Materials and Methods: A Boolean search of articles published from January 2000 to December 2017 in electronic database of PubMed and Google Scholar was carried out, and original research studies done on mental health in prisoners were incorporated in the current review. Case reports and review articles were excluded from the current review. Results: A total of 12 research studies were included for the review and classified into prevalence of mental disorders and drug abuse in prisons, clinical features, and factors affecting mental health in prison. Conclusion: The number of studies in India is comparatively less than other countries. The prevalence of psychiatric disorders such as substance use, schizophrenia, depression, adjustment issues, and suicidal risk is considerably high. Hence, it is necessary to study the various factors predisposing prisoners to mental health issues and effective treatment options for better delivery of mental health among prisoners.

Background: Attitude to antipsychotics is likely to affect adherence to treatment and hence the outcome in schizophrenia. Methods: The present study was conducted to assess the attitude to antipsychotics and its correlates in patients with schizophrenia. Attitude to antipsychotics, insight, and psychopathology were assessed in 331 patients with schizophrenia using standardized measures. Results: Most patients showed a positive attitude toward antipsychotics. A negative correlation was observed between attitude and severity of psychopathology, whereas a positive attitude was seen between insight and attitude. Conclusion: The study emphasizes the need for psychoeducation at improving insight in patients with schizophrenia so as to enhance treatment adherence and outcome.

Background: The main aim of this study was to evaluate the knowledge, management practices, and attitudes of a group of resident doctors in a tertiary care center toward children with psychiatric illness (CPI). Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was carried out in a training hospital and included 100 resident doctors. Data collection was done by self-administered semi-structured questionnaire. Analysis was done using SPSS version 17.0.1. Results: Many respondents had positive values about CPI and recognized prejudice in the population against them. The referral of CPI to the psychiatrist is a common practice among the doctors believing that primary intervention holds an important entity in management. The majority of the residents were unsatisfied not only with their but also their colleagues' knowledge, and familiarity with the variety and management of CPI. The residents were of the opinion that the undergraduate medical school training did not give enough importance to the study of CPI. Conclusions: The nonpsychiatrists do not feel confident in managing CPI complaining about the inadequate undergraduate medical training regarding CPI. There was not a clear relationship between the undergraduate medical training, referral practices, and satisfaction regarding the management of CPI. In this way, there are other barriers, perceived or not, to providing care to CPI by the doctors, and they need to be addressed in the medical undergraduate curriculum and continuing medical education.

Background: Children usually play video games for entertainment, excitement, challenge seeking, emotional coping, and escaping from reality to virtuality to fulfill their unsatisfied needs or motivations. Video game is a ‘medium’ through which young children can make sense of, and feel at home in the present modern generation where in parents are too busy with their own career choices. Methods: The present study aims at understanding prevalence and how it impacts on the academics among the school children and to understand about mental health problems among the pathological user. The present study likes to explore the addiction of video and internet games among students and establish fact about its effects. Students were selected from two schools with state syllabus. Video game addiction scale and study checklist was used for the present study. 200 students in the classes of 8th and 9thgrades and those who can read and write English were invited to participate in the survey. Results: Almost half of the children reported that they did not play Video Game, 18% of students are using video game with control, 20% students are excessively using video games and 17.5% of the students fall under addiction category. The study indicated that 19% of the children were spending more than 3 hours for game. Conclusion: In conclusion, playing video and internet games is a widespread activity among young children, and a substantial proportion of their time is spent on this activity, affecting their relationship and the time spent on learning.

Background: The study aimed to investigate the compliance to prohibition of smoking (under Section 4 of Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act [COTPA]) and other provisions under COTPA in a medical college situated in Chandigarh, the first smoke-free city of the country. Methods: It was a cross-sectional survey conducted at 57 sites within the medical institute. The data were collected using the structured compliance monitoring tool based on the COTPA guidelines. Results: “No active smoking” was seen at 75% of sites and there was display of signage at 28% of sites. There was the absence of cigarette butts, used matchsticks, gutkha wrappers, etc., in corners which are the secondary indicators of smoking at 70% of all sites surveyed. Conclusion: The study highlights the various loop holes in successful enforcement of COTPA. The study highlights the need to sensitize the administration on COTPA implementation with the development of well-established coordinating systems, wide publicity, and empowering reporting officers to compound offence and impound fine.

Background: The assessment of suicide risk has been neglected among the family caregivers (FCs) of patients with depressive disorders. Objectives: The objective was to examine the validity, reliability, and suicide risk screening characteristics of the PHQ-8 in a sample of Nigerian FCs of patients with psychiatric disorders specifically depressive disorders. Methods: A total of 262 FC-patient dyads were consecutively recruited adopting a convenience sampling technique from two tertiary healthcare facilities in Southwestern Nigeria. Their FCs completed the PHQ-8, the General Health Questionnaire-12 (GHQ-12), and the Zarit Burden Interview (ZBI). Suicide risk level was assessed by interviewing them with the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI) suicidality module. The patients completed the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS), and their functioning was evaluated with the Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF) Scale. Results: The Cronbach's alpha for the PHQ-8 items was 0.80. It demonstrated satisfactory construct validity with the FC score on the ZBI (P < 0.001), GHQ-12 (P < 0.001), and patients' HDRS (P < 0.001), and GAF (P < 0.001) scores. Logistic regression revealed that only the FCs' PHQ-8 score was positively associated with their suicide risk status. Applying the receiver operating characteristics curve, the best cutoff score for those with high-suicide risk was 8 (sensitivity 0.889, specificity 0.850). Conclusions: The PHQ-8 has satisfactory screening properties as a suicide risk assessment tool among the FCs of Nigerian patients with depressive disorders.

Background: Persons living with HIV/AIDS experience high stigma, which limits their access to health-care institutions and treatment, thus affect health and mental health. Stigma is expected to decrease self-esteem; however, no strong evidence is established in scientific literature. The association between stigma and self-esteem in HIV/AIDS context is not well studied, especially in India. Aim: We conducted this study to examine the role of stigma for predicting self-esteem in persons living with HIV/AIDS. Methods: Using a cross-sectional research design, we examined stigma and self-esteem in randomly selected 150 persons living with HIV/AIDS in Palakkad District, South India. The stigma was measured using HIV stigma scale while Rosenberg self-esteem scale was used to measure self-esteem. Multivariate linear regression model was used to test the association of stigma dimensions on self-esteem. Results: The persons living with HIV/AIDS experienced high stigma and low self-esteem. The “personalized stigma” was the strongest predictor which significantly reduced self-esteem (β = −0.706; P < 0.001). The independent variables predicted 56% variance on self-esteem. Overall, the model fit was significant at 0.001 level (F = 47.72). Conclusion: The tested model is useful in understanding various aspects of stigma and its potential role in determining self-esteem of persons living with HIV/AIDS in India.

Introduction: Kerala parents are craving for a proper guideline regarding the kind of involvement they have to make in the education of their wards. They either exercised over involvement or no involvement at all. Despite the good intentions of parents, parental involvement often slips into a sort of unhealthy “entanglement” which usually disrupts all possibilities for intrinsic unfolding and overall well-being of students. The present study focused on parental educational involvement and wanted to see its influence on the educational stress levels of school going adolescents of Kerala. Subjects and Methods: The sample consisted of 261 adolescents with a mean age of 16 years (standard deviation = 0.592). Participants were randomly selected from two aided, two private, and two government higher secondary schools of Thrissur district in Kerala state. Three Likert scales, namely, Parental Involvement Questionnaire, Perceived Parental Autonomy Support Scale, and Educational Stress Scale for Adolescents were used for data collection. Results: The data analysis carried out using SPSS version 23 revealed a significant negative association between various indicators of parental educational involvement and educational stress of adolescents. Furthermore, parental practices such as discussing future evinced significant predictive power in the educational stress of adolescents. Of the mediational analyses conducted for the mediational effects of autonomy support and psychological control, the later (psychological control) emerged as the significant mediator in the relation between parent educational involvement and educational stress of adolescents. Conclusions: Parents' practice of discussing future, talking of school activities, and school involvement had a buffering impact on the education stress of adolescents. However, all these practices must be free from traces of psychological control. The results of the study have significant implications in parenting and teaching as well. Parental practices such as discussing future, talking of school activities, and school involvement must be free from traces of psychological control to have positive, buffering impact on the educational stress levels of adolescents.

Background: The sexual minority status of the gay and bisexual community puts them into a unique vulnerability state for mental health problems. One of the factors associated with this stress is remaining in “closet” leading to a higher prevalence of depression. Aims: This study aimed to estimate the prevalence of depression in Indian men who have sex with men (MSM) and to assess the association of depression with disclosure, if any, in this community. Materials and Methods: This was a cross-sectional observational study of Indian men recruited through an advertisement on a dating website exclusive for gay men. Depression was assessed on self-reported scale of the Centre for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale-Revised (CESD-R). Results: Most of the men who took part in the study belonged to the age group of 25–35 years with mean age of the study sample being 30.31 years (standard deviation [SD] ±8.58). A majority of them were salaried, had higher education, and belonged to the Hindu religion. Most of the participants were either exclusively or predominantly homosexual (72%) followed by men with bisexual orientation (18%). On measures of disclosure/“outness,” out of 277 respondents, 171 (61.73%) were not open about their sexuality, 92 (33.21%) were sometimes open, while only 14 (5.05%) were always open about their sexual orientation in front of others. The average age of coming out of closet (n = 232) was 19.71 years (SD ± 6.67). The mean score on CESD-R scale was 25.65 (SD ± 16.38). Depression was present in 163 participants (58.84%) of the entire sample. The depression scores negatively correlated with age, with scores being higher in younger age group. Depression was not associated with the type of sexual orientation. Although the depression scores were higher in those who were in the closet, it was not statistically significant. Those who had negative experience of coming out of closet had significantly higher scores on CESD-R compared to those who had positive reaction on coming out. Conclusion: Depression is highly prevalent in Indian MSM.

Introduction: In recent years, India is witnessing a change in public attitude and concern toward sexual minority population. The study was undertaken as there are sparse data regarding homosexuality in India, where it is still considered punishable. Aim: This study aimed to assess sociodemographic profiles and psychiatric morbidities of homosexuals belonging to a northeastern state of India, Manipur. Materials and Methods: This was a cross-sectional study conducted on 32 consenting homosexuals from October 2016 to June 2017, using a semi-structured interview schedule and Mini-International Neuropsychiatry Interview-Plus scale. Results: Majority of the homosexuals were from urban areas and belonged to nuclear family. The current study reported increased psychiatric morbidities among the homosexuals, of which substance abuse was among the top followed by anxiety disorders, depressive disorders, and higher suicidal risk. Conclusion: Results clearly indicate that this population is at higher risk of developing psychiatric morbidities. Hence, this necessitates a different interventional model for the overall well-being of homosexuals.

Background: Cancer is a word that strikes fear into people and is something that completely changes their lives and its effects touch everyone involved. The main objective of the study is to assess the coping strategies used by parents of children with cancer. Subjects and Methods: A total of 60 caregivers of children with cancer and 60 caregivers of healthy children participated in the study. Informed consent was taken and caregivers were assessed on sociodemographic parameters, and coping was measured using ways of coping scale-revised. Results: The mean age of children was 9.98 (standard deviation-1.85) years. About half (54%) of them had completed 5^th standard. Half (51%) of the children were diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. A total of 60 parents were recruited in the present study, about half of the parents (48.3%) were educated up to or beyond graduation and about (70%) of them were earning more than rupees 19,574/month. Slightly more than half (51.7%) of the caregivers belonged to joint/extended families. The findings of the current study are evident that parents used emotion-focused coping strategies more than problem-focused coping strategies. Conclusion: The present study suggests that whenever possible, intervention may best target parents to enhance better-coping skills. We also need to address the caregivers concerns seriously to improve well-being their quality of life.