Dr.G.K. Vankar

• M.D(Psychiatry),DPM
• Professor (Full) at Parul University

Somatic symptom disorder is new diagnostic category in DSM 5. Somatic symptom disorder (previously known as somatization disorder) is the association of medically unexplained somatic symptoms with psychological distress and health-seeking behavior and is present in at least 10% to 15% in OPD. The aims and objectives were to Study medically unexplai...

Background This study examines the relationship between sexual fantasies, sexual dysfunction (SD), and sexual well-being, focusing on individuals with SD group compared to healthy controls. Methods Participants included patients with sexual health concerns diagnosed with erectile dysfunction (ED) or premature ejaculation (PME) and healthy controls...

Background Healthcare providers faced the challenge of managing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)-infected patients. At the onset of the spread of the coronavirus infection across the globe, awareness of the treatment modalities was poor. Interns were relatively new to treating patients as they had just started their clinical postings in February...

Title: Exploring the Relationship between Adverse Childhood Experiences and Alexithymia with Somatic Symptoms Disorder among Adults in a tertiary care hospital : A cross-sectional study Background and aims: Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) have been associated with Alexithymia and Somatic Symptoms. This study examines the relationship between A...

Background & objectives: Investment in mental health is quite meagre worldwide, including in India. The costs of new interventions must be clarified to ensure the appropriate utilization of available resources. The government of Gujarat implemented QualityRights intervention at six public mental health hospitals. This study was aimed to project th...

Introduction: The legalization of LGBTQIA+ community will bring a new stream of patients and their specific issues to healthcare community. Despite getting their place in society, they face discrimination and stigma from healthcare professionals, which will roadblock them from accessing healthcare. This study aims to document the perception of upco...

Exploration of contemporary literature, for better understanding of psychiatric illness, large scale social mobilization and portrayal in real/fictional life.

Enuresis is a common childhood condition treated by pediatricians and psychiatrists. Enuresis is also commonly referred as bedwetting. It is more prevalent among boys than girls. Enuresis is an involuntary voiding of urine continuing after an anticipated age of control in the absence of any organic abnormality. This review summarizes the current kn...

The Recovering Quality of Life (ReQoL) scale is a short scale for routine clinical use in mental health services. Its shorter 10-item version in English was translated and validated in Gujarati, an Indian language, spoken in the western state of Gujarat in India. The translation process involved following process: forward and back-translation, pilo...

ABSTRACTObjectives: We report our experience of an educational project conducted with the objectives of inculcating the knowledge and encouraging the application of the principles of clinical ethics among intern doctors.Materials and Methods: An interdepartmental, integrated, interactive seminar was conducted by the departments of psychiatry, pharm...

Psychological traumas may occur during childhood in the form of physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, physical neglect, and/or emotional neglect. Trauma may be experienced when a person experiences serious loss or his/her life is under grave threat. If such traumatic event is neither dealt effectively nor resolved completely, it may predis...

Background: Auditory hallucinations are common feature in psychotic disorder and have also given diagnostic importance. These hallucinations can be rated on different dimensions both quantitatively and qualitatively, so here comes phenomenological aspect. Study of phenomenological aspects may lead to more understanding about them and further can he...

OBJECTIVES: We report our experience of an educational project conducted with the objectives of inculcating the knowledge and encouraging the application of the principles of clinical ethics among intern doctors. MATERIALS AND METHODS: An interdepartmental, integrated, interactive seminar was conducted by the departments of psychiatry, pharmacolog...

IntroductionExploring the ways in which sexual fantasies may affect sexual experience and satisfaction is of relavence in the clinical setting involving sexual dysfuntion. Objectives To observe how the sexual fantasy scores differ in their relationship with sexual satisfaction, experience and quality between sexual dysfunction cases and normal cont...

Introduction Current classification systems are not sure where to place the internet use disorder. Is it an addiction, an impulse control disorder, a consequence of another psychiatric morbidity or a consequence of personality trait/personality disorder? Objectives We intended to study which personality traits associated with online cognition may...

BACKGROUND: Chronic and persistent alcohol use is one of the most common significant psychiatric illnesses known to cause sexual dysfunction. The aim of the present study is to study the prevalence and types of sexual dysfunction in the clinical sample of married male patients with alcohol dependence syndrome (ADS). MATERIALS AND METHODS: The prese...

Psychological trauma occurs when a person suffers from serious threat or loss to his/her life. Childhood psychological trauma can be of various forms such as physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, physical neglect, and emotional neglect. Such adverse childhood experiences, if not effectively dealt or resolved, may lead to the development of...

Introduction Increased use of smartphones can lead to smartphone addiction and “no-mobile-phone-phobia” known as nomophobia. During an ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) lockdown, to tackle an issue of boredom, many people including undergraduate health sciences students (HSSs) are using smartphones, leading to an increased risk of smartph...

A false, fixed and firm belief of being pregnant despite factual evidence to the contrary is a delusion of pregnancy. This can occur in both men and women and is associated with many psychiatric and biological disorders. It should be differentiated from pseudocyesis, pseudopregnancy, simulated pregnancy and Couvade syndrome. We report a case of del...

Obsessive–compulsive symptoms (OCS) and obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) occur frequently in schizophrenia. Comorbid OCS or OCD can influence the course of schizophrenia. Comorbid OCS or OCD is associated with an increased severity of schizophrenia and poorer prognosis. Lacunar infarcts though not always, but often considered benign as they do n...

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a neuropsychiatric condition affecting the preschoolers, children, adolescents and adults globally. Dopamine synthesis is dependent on availability of iron in the body and dopamine deficit theory is the widely accepted ADHD causation theory. So, serum iron levels are important to watch out for in p...

Introduction: Psychological trauma may occur when an individual suffers from serious loss or his/her life is under serious threat. If such traumatic experience is failed to be resolved, it may lead to drug misuse including alcohol dependence. Early childhood trauma may predispose an individual to mental health issues, including development of alcoh...

Original ArticleContext: Stigma associated with mental illness is devastating and can be detrimental to recovery. Many people with serious mental illness are challenged with the symptoms and disabilities caused by the disease. In addition, they are challenged by the stereotypes and prejudice that result from misconceptions about mental illness. Aim...

Fahr’s disease (FD) is a rare neurological disorder characterized by idiopathic bilateral basal ganglia calcification. It manifests as psychiatric, cognitive, and neurological manifestations. FD is distinct from Fahr’s syndrome, in that the latter is having the symptoms generated by preexisting disease and abnormalities evident on blood investigati...

The Recovering Quality of Life (ReQoL) scale was translated and validated in Marathi, one of the major Indian languages, by a team of mental health professionals at Datta Meghe Institute of Medical Sciences, India. The standard process of translation was followed which involved forward and back-translation, pilot-testing involving patients, review...

Introduction: Substance abuse is a common comorbidity in patients of Schizophrenia. Link between the use of substances and development of psychosis is demonstrated by high prevalence of substance abuse in schizophrenia. Substance use disorders and their effects on schizophrenia have made identification and treatment of these patients a high priorit...

In rural parts of India still the "magico-religious beliefs" regarding the occurrence of the psychiatric disorders and "magico-religious treatments" of the psychiatric disorders often seen and prevail. Such beliefs and treatments many times lead to physical as well as psychological trauma to an individual suffering from any psychiatric disorder and...

Mass psychogenic illness also known as mass hysteria is defined as the epidemic occurrence of a series of physical symptoms in the absence of organic disorder. In current diagnostic classificatory system, it is subsumed under somatoform disorder, specifically conversion disorder. Episodes are characterised by transient and benign symptoms; rapid on...

Aim of the study Background: Schizophrenia patients are more prone to violent crimes because of associated risk factors- delusions, hallucinations, and substance misuse. The phenomenology of delusions associated with action provides a new way of understanding delusions and identifying key targets for risk management intervention secondary to medica...

In rural parts of India still the "magico-religious beliefs" regarding the occurrence of the psychiatric disorders and "magico-religious treatments" of the psychiatric disorders often seen and prevail. Such beliefs and treatments many times lead to physical as well as psychological trauma to an individual suffering from any psychiatric disorder and...

Purpose: The purpose is to find out the rate of nocturnal enuresis in school going children (5-12 years) and the risk factors associated with it. Materials and methods: The parents of children aged between 5 and 12 years studying in two primary schools in Ahmedabad completed a self-administered semi-structured questionnaire comprising of enuresi...

Background Recognising the significant extent of poor-quality care and human rights issues in mental health, the World Health Organization launched the QualityRights initiative in 2013 as a practical tool for implementing human rights standards including the United Nations Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) at the ground level...

It is a study of brief intervention on medical student attitude towards suicide in India

Background: A majority of educational programs place emphasis on sexually transmitted diseases, abortion, and contraception but ignore the broader questions of sexual experience, anatomy, and cultural myths. The aim of the present study was to explore the impact of our intervention on these ignored domains. To ascertain the sex-related knowledge of...

Aim of the study To find out prevalence of Alcohol Use Disorders (AUD) among hospitalized patients at a tertiary care centre in Medical, Surgical and Orthopaedic trauma wards. Subject or material and methods : It is prospective, randomized, cross-sectional study at a tertiary hospital in a state with prohibition policy. Patients hospitalized in Me...

Aim of the study Primary care is one of the first points of contact for patients with Major Depressive Disorder. However, before these centers can become effective referral points, it is essential to know the prevalence and current rates of detection there. We aimed to determine the prevalence of MDD and its sociodemographic correlates in a Primary...

Introduction: Higher studies in general and postgraduate medical studies in particular carry a lot of stress. Some of it must be accepted, but a lot of it is modifiable by pertinent personal, institutional and policy changes. Hence, as a basic prerequisite, we have tried to assess the level of depression, anxiety, and stress suffered by the residen...

Introduction: Higher studies in general and postgraduate medical studies in particular carry a lot of stress. Some of it must be accepted, but a lot of it is modifiable by pertinent personal, institutional and policy changes. Hence, as a basic prerequisite, we have tried to assess the level of depression, anxiety, and stress suffered by the residen...

Aim: To assess the attitude of medical interns towards Psychiatry Material and Methods: A hundred and fifty-three undergraduate students participated in this cross sectional, questionnaire based study. The 'Attitude towards Psychiatry' questionnaire (Balon et al, 1999) was filled up by the participants and was anonymously submitted at the end of th...

Through the behavioral descriptions in age-old texts it is obvious that Mental Health problems exist since the existence of Homo Sapiens and humanity, with ever changing norms, contexts, definitions and hence their management. Gujarat state of India is one of the oldest land plateaus existing. It has been inhabited, ruled and governed by many diffe...

Background: Worldwide, mental illnesses are on rise. There is an acute shortage of psychiatrists. Young medical graduates find psychiatry specialty a less attractive career option. The present study was conducted to find out attitudinal change of medical graduates to psychiatry specialty after their clinical posting. Methods: The study was carried...

Aim of the study To find out the prevalence of illness anxiety disorder (hypochondriasis) in medical outpatients and the risk factors and psychiatric co morbidities associated with it. Subject or material and methods 400 consecutive medical outpatients were asked for socio demographic characteristics and risk factors associated with illness anxiet...

Aim of the study 1.To assess and compare the burden of care and psychiatric morbidity in caregivers of patients with schizophrenia and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD). 2.To study burden with relation to socio-demographic characteristics and disease related factors. Subject or material and methods Study was conducted at tertiary care general ho...

Introduction Myths related to sexuality are widely prevalent. Many a times they lead to much anxiety and sexual dissatisfaction. There are only few studies on knowledge about sexuality and level of sexual satisfaction. The study was conducted to assess knowledge level of men, in Indore, an Indian city Methods: Graduate sexually active Indian men...

Context: Attitudes of paramedical and medical professionals to psychiatric illnesses are important for referral and use of mental health facilities by general people. Knowledge of psychiatric disorders and experience of working with psychiatric patients may be responsible for positive attitudes. Aims: The aim was to assess attitude toward different...

Background: The term " mental health literacy " refers to knowledge and beliefs about mental disorders which aid their recognition, management or prevention. It is an important component of programs that aim to decrease the stigma of mental illness. The following study was aimed to assessing the levels of mental health literacy with respect to schi...

Aim of the study Study was planned to assess the attitudes of psychiatrists in India towards homosexuality. Subject or material and methods An informed consent form and a semi structured proforma were sent online to 3,348 psychiatrists across India. Multiple questions pertaining to the age, gender, religion, place of practice, work area, comfort i...

Background: With the advancement in Media technologies, explicit sexual materials are widely available and distributed easily. This exposes people to pornography as never before. Consumption of it may potentially be stimulating as well as may lead to development of ill effects such as aggression, paraphilias. We aimed to study the effects of pornog...

ABSTRACT Background: The term “Mental Health Literacy” refers to knowledge and beliefs about mental disorders which aid their recognition, management or prevention. It is an important component of Mental Health Primary Care (MHPC) training programs that aim to decrease the stigma of mental illness. Aim and Objective: This study was aimed for assess...

Background: Suicide is a global health problem and the second leading cause of death in 15-29 years of age. There were reports of nursing students committing suicide in Gujarat. As nursing teachers are the important gatekeepers, it was essential to study their attitude towards suicide prevention. Methodology: A questionaire containing 20 statement...

Normal fear is an adaptive response to a real or imagined threat. Fears occur in children and adolescents at varying levels while they negotiate different developmental phases. The present study aimed at assessing the types of fears in children and adolescents between the ages of 11 and 19 years. Age and gender based differences in these fears were...

Background: Teachers can be trained in early identification of possible mental illness and referral which is well-established in the west and lacking in India. Hence, we attempt to study the knowledge and attitudes of secondary school teachers toward mental illness and probable gender differences in these measures. Materials and Methods: Five hundr...

Background: Attitude of today’s early career psychiatrists (ECPs), those who have qualified as psychiatrists in the past 7 years, will have a bearing on how homosexuality will be perceived in the coming decades. Hence a study was planned to assess these attitudes of ECPs towards homosexuality. Methods: It was an online survey based cross-sectional...

Objective Test anxiety is an important indicator of student performance especially in nursing and medical students. The aim of the present research was to assess the prevalence of test anxiety in medical and nursing students while exploring causative factors, coping behaviour and the role of social derogation, cognitive obstruction and affective (...

Self-reported comfort and self-perceived knowledge was surprisingly, significantly lower in first and second year students. As expected, students’ sense of comfort and perceived knowledge regarding their ability to address sexual health issues is higher among students of second year compared to those at the start of their first year. The third year...

Objectives: To compare the prevalence and risk factors associated with domestic violence and its relation to psychiatric disorders in patients coming to psychiatric OPD and gynaecology OPD. Methods: The study was conducted in the psychiatric and gynaecology OPD, Civil hospital. 100 non-psychotic women from each OPD aged 18 to 55 years were includ...

Objectives: 1) To validate the Gujarati version of The Cardiff Anomalous Perception Scale (CAPS). 2) To measure prevalence of anomalous perceptions in general population. Methods: The occurrence, frequency, intrusiveness and distress for perceptual abnormalities among the general population and psychotic patients were compared on Gujarati version o...

Inahalant abuse is of increasing interest in India. The age of onset is typically during adolescence. Gasoline inhalant use is rarely reported in adolescents with intellectual deficit. We report a case of petrol dependence in a 10-year-old child with mental retardation. Possible effect of petrol huffing on behavior and cognition is discussed.

"Gasoline abuse in 10 year old child with mental retardation' is published recently in the international journal, Substance Abuse:Research and Treatment 2015:9 5–8

Background: Work environment is one of the key factors responsible for stress in human life. Different aspects of working conditions affect person’s work. Work stress in turn leads to psychiatric problems. Doctors and nurses are prone to be affected by work stressors as their work includes more human interactions. Methods: It is a cross sectional o...

Prolonged Grief Disorder is a common and debilitating condition with diagnostic criteria that have only recently been proposed and tested, primarily in the United States. Widows who had lost their husbands in communal riots in 2002 in India were evaluated for Prolonged Grief Disorder (PGD) using validated diagnostic criteria. Of the 110 widows stud...

Background: There are known risk factors for suicide in major depression but there is lack of knowledge about what protects people against suicide. Aims: To find out Reasons of living in Major Depression and to compare patents with and without suicidal ideas as regards Reasons for living, demographic and disease related characteristics, severity of...

Background: High level of mental health literacy which includes adequate knowledge and positive attitudes in school going children towards psychiatric illnesses would make early recognition of and appropriate intervention in these disorders more likely and better outcome of illnesses.

Doll phobia, a specific phobia, is a rare phobia seen in children. Specific phobia is usually successfully treated by behavior therapy involving exposure to feared object or situation in several sessions. More recently there is increasing interest in single session behavior therapy as an effective alternative. We report a case of doll phobia in a y...

Background: Child rearing practices influence child adolescent behavior. Aims and objectives: To test if parental views about child rearing over 10 years change Material and Method: Parents of children studying in grade 1 to 4 in a primary school were surveyed with a 25 item child rearing questionnaire anonymously in 2001 and 2011. Analysis: Respon...

Schizophrenia and major depressive disorder (MDD) are among the most common psychiatric diagnoses associated with suicide. There is a dearth of published research systematically comparing suicidal behavior in schizophrenia and MDD. The present study aimed to compare suicide attempts in schizophrenia and MDD. In this hospital-based, cross-sectional...

Background : Premature ejaculation is the most common sexual dysfunction amongst all sexual dysfunctions and is undertreated. Behavioural intervention and pharmacological intervention or the combination of both these modalities are currently available treatment options. Method: It was a behavioural intervention study done over 35 males diagnosed wi...

Background: Studies have shown medical school training to be a source of signifi cant stress. Despite the critical importance of stress and well-being during residency training, only a few Indian studies have examined stress in residency. Aim: We investigated the psychiatric morbidity, stressors and coping in residents. Methods: We conducted a cros...

Media reporting have a direct impact on both community attitudes towards mental illness and suicide attempts. is study examined how suicide and mental health are portrayed in the media in Baroda. In this cross sectional study of ve daily newspapers, total 350 cuttings were analyzed, about 2/3 had suicide theme and 1/3 had non-suicide theme. In port...