Author Archives: Tulasi Rehab

World Mental Health Day – 10th October

Mental Health and Its Importance

A lot of people today are under stress due to the covid-19 pandemic across India and the world. Job loss, pay cuts, uncertainty about future, work-from-home for long hours, being confined at home for months have made their situation worse.

On the occasion of World Mental Health Day, it is of paramount importance to highlight the importance of mental health issues like stress and how it can take a heavy toll on a person’s mental and physical health and wellbeing. Left untreated, it can also lead to more serious mental health problems as well as

Susceptibility (risk) factors for in-patient violence at psychiatric hospitals

The assessment and management of risk and susceptibility of violence in the patients with mental disorders residing in psychiatric hospitals have been extensively debated over the past many years. Some mental disorders and a few specific genetic factors have proven to modify the risk associated with violence. Skills for precise evaluation and management of risks are essential for psychiatrists and other clinicians involved in the treatment of mental disorders, to prevent undesirable results. Historically, risk assessment has been conducted basis the evaluators’ clinical impressions.

Despite the recent development and breakthroughs in the field of risk assessment, there has been a

Patient assaults among staff members of Mental Health Hospitals

Patients physically assaulting the staff at mental hospitals where they are admit, which results in minor/ severe injuries or even deaths is alarmingly prevalent in the current scenario, especially in IPD settings (such as in mental hospitals).

Paramedical staffs, psychiatrists, psychologists and counselors face manifold types of antagonism, violence, and beating at work, collectively referred to as workplace violence, which usually is sparked off by patients. Whether workplace violence negatively affects staff well-being may be related not only to its presence, but also to a person’s pressure reactivity. The creation of a healing environment is a vital goal for

Prevalence of self-stigma and its association with self-esteem among patients in mental hospitals

Stigma against mental disorders cuts across all age, religion, ethnic origin or socio-economic strata. In the same way, self-stigma among psychiatric patients admit in mental hospitals or in other IPD settings is also prevalent worldwide. The consequences of self-stigma are low self-confidence, increased severity of symptoms, low adherence to prescribed medication & treatment, increased suicide rate and an overall decreased quality of life.

Mental disorders are accompanied by reactions from the societies and communities of the suffering persons, that adds a dimension of suffering to the existent condition of the sufferer, which is called “second illness” or “stigma”.

Most studies

Multiple Barriers against Successful Care for Depressed Patients at Mental Hospitals

A study of 21 countries with the World Health Organization (WHO) Mental Health Surveys has concluded that only 52.6% of persons with depressive disorders in low-income countries have received treatment. Studies have recognized more than a few difficult consequences of mental disorders going untreated such as: pre-mature mortality, unemployment, poverty, homelessness, co-morbid substance abuse, addiction, poor physical health and suicide. Some initiatives have been taken up recently to reduce the gap in mental health treatment which mentally ill persons avail of at mental hospitals and in other such IPD settings.

However, the gap is still large and there is a

Psychiatric disorders which affect suicidal patients admitted into psychiatric hospitals

Suicidal patients admitted into psychiatric hospitals

Patients with suicidal behavior (SB) who are admitted into psychiatric hospitals are considered to be at a higher risk of suicide. However, the number of studies that have addressed this population of patients is insufficient when compared to the number of studies conducted on suicidal patients in psychiatric hospitals, both in emergency and regular IPD settings.

Suicidal behavior (SB) is a chief concern for mental health practitioners and often an underlying cause of emergency treatment and admission into psychiatric hospitals. It also requires the individual attention of the mental health practitioner as it is

Coping with Bipolar Disorder

Bipolar disorder is a mood disorder which affects all spheres of a sufferer’s life, including her/his frame of mind, vigor, concentration and behavior. Although the treatment success rate of bipolar disorder may not be promising always, however, the symptoms of this mental disorder can be managed. Further making the individuals diagnosed with bipolar disorder live fuller & healthier lives. These measures may include a combination of support from a mental health practitioner, medication, therapy and lifestyle-alteration.

Following are a few steps to help individuals struggling with bipolar disorder:

Isolating oneself increases the peril of mood fluctuations going unobserved, so keeping

Marijuana Induced Psychosis

Psychosis is a mental condition in which the affected person loses touch with reality and may exhibit symptoms like delusion, hallucination, paranoia, muddled thinking, slurred speech, loss of motivation, despair, anxiety & insomnia. 3 out of every 100 people experience a psychotic episode at least once in their lives*. During the initial Prodromal Phase of psychosis, subtle changes reflect in thinking, perception and behavior. During the Acute Phase, full blown symptoms occur which may affect the individual’s daily routine and hamper functioning. Later on, the Recovery Phase commences.

Cannabis (also known as marijuana) is the most commonly used illicit recreational

Role of Alcoholic Anonymous in Alcohol Addiction Treatment

Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) is a worldwide communal support community with the avowed rationale of empowering its associates to “stay abstemious and help other alcoholics achieve abstinence.” AA is an informal, self-sufficient, and apolitical organization. The only condition/requirement to become a member of AA is a desire of becoming sober.

AA was established in Akron, Ohio; during the year 1935, when Bill Wilson, an alcoholic, spoke with Bob Smith, another alcoholic; about a possible way to give up alcohol addiction, given the nature of alcoholism.

In 1939, a book named: “Alcoholics Anonymous: The Story of How More Than One Hundred Men

Drug-induced Psychosis and Heroin Addiction

Psychosis is a psychological disorder which results in the affected persons construing the events and happenings around them differently and abnormally when compared with the interpretation of the same events & happenings by other mentally stable people.

Drug-induced psychosis, also referred to as ‘stimulant psychosis’, is a psychotic episode which occurs as a result of abuse of stimulants, prescription drugs, alcohol or narcotic drugs, all of which set off a psychotic response.

Psychosis is usually distinguished by symptoms like hallucination or delusion, which are highly surreal feelings. Hallucination implies the strong sensing of occurrences that