Susanta Kumar Padhy

• Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research

Background Understanding pathways to dual diagnosis (DD) care will help organize DD services and facilitate training and referral across healthcare sectors. Aim The aim of our study was to characterize the stepwise healthcare and other contacts among patients with DD, compare the characteristics of the first contact persons with common mental diso...

Background: Substance use disorders (SUDs) are among the leading causes of morbidity in the population. In low- and medium-income countries like India, there is a wide treatment gap for SUD. A multicentric study on the care pathways for SUD in India can help to understand service provision, service utilization, and challenges to improve existing S...

Aims This study aimed to assess the quality of life (QoL) of older adults in rural Odisha, India, exploring its multidimensional nature across physical, psychological, social, and environmental domains. The impact of depression and various sociodemographic factors on QoL was also investigated. Methods The research was conducted in the Tangi block o...

This narrative review aims to identify key concepts associated with school refusal, including various risk factors, and to discuss current practical assessment and treatment methods available or under trial. For this study, we searched MEDLINE and Scopus databases for articles containing keywords like “school refusal” and associated keywords such a...

Smart healthcare becomes one of the popular research areas in recent years. This research proposes to expand the state-of-art of smart healthcare by incorporating solutions for obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). Classification of OCD by analyzing oxidative stress biomarkers (OSBs) through a machine-learning mechanism is a significant development...

The Indian cinema industry greatly impacts the world, especially in South Asian nations, including Bangladesh and Indonesia. This study examines the quality of suicide reporting by media following non-native celebrity suicides in nations with a comparable culture. This study was conducted for one month immediately following the suicide of an Indian...

Online portals of selected English and local language newspapers and television channels were searched to identify suicide news reports published one year after the celebrity suicide (ACS). These reports (n = 1952) were compared with the corresponding period of the previous year, immediately following the celebrity suicide (ICS) (n = 2486), and a t...

The world's population is aging rapidly, and the epidemiological transition has led to increased mental disorders worldwide. Geriatric depression is masked by multiple comorbidities or the natural process of aging. Our study aims to estimate the prevalence of geriatric depression and find the risk factors associated with geriatric depression in rur...

Pediatric acute-onset neuropsychiatric syndrome (PANS) is defined by abrupt emergence of obsessive–compulsive behaviours and/or food restriction with concurrent cognitive and behavioural symptoms. Symptoms of obsessive–compulsive disorder and eating disorder frequently overlap in such cases, clouding diagnostic certainty and hypothesized etiologic...

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has emerged as a major public health concern worldwide. While containing the infection and caring for the ill has been a focus over the last 2 years, there has also been a burgeoning concern for mental health issues during this never-ending pandemic. The focus of health care machinery prioritized confronting and c...

With proliferation in research on high-risk psychosis spectrum diseases, it is crucial to distinguish a prodrome or psychosis-like episode in children and adolescents from true psychosis. The limited role of psychopharmacology in such circumstances is well-documented, underlining the difficulties in diagnosing treatment resistance. To add to the co...

Pathological intermittent laughter is often seen in neurological disorders like pseudobulbar palsy , multiple sclerosis , frontotemporal dementia , epilepsies and organic personality change. such presentation in relatively elderly patients mandates an organic work up. However A protracted presentation over years without any cognitive or nuerologica...

Alcohol use disorder is a complex bio-psycho social illness. It needs a resource intensive and prolonged interventions to keep the patient away from harm from drinking. Often the attribution is external , with poor motivation and disengagement from services despite the best effort from the family of such patients. However the reverse is true as wel...

In recent years the importance of Smart Healthcare cannot be overstated. The current work proposed to expand the state-of-art of smart healthcare in integrating solutions for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). Identification of OCD from oxidative stress biomarkers (OSBs) using machine learning is an important development in the study of OCD. Howe...

Adolescent sexuality is a stage of human development when adolescents experience, express and explore sexual feelings. This is influenced by hormonal, physiological, genetic, socio-cultural and psychosexual factors. Rapid digitalization and emerging globalization have a huge impact on the changing dynamics of adolescent sexuality. Teen dating...

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has led to widespread controversies related to the transmission, treatment, prevention, and management of COVID-19 infection. Medical students have been involved in patient care across the globe and many a times the general public looks forward towards the medical professionals to get proper information about vari...

Background and aim: Pandemic and consequent lockdowns are likely to affect the drug market by the sudden disruption of the supply chain. We explored the change in the availability, access, purity, and pricing during lockdown from respondents seeking treatment for drugs, alcohol, and tobacco dependence. Materials and methods: A cross-sectional su...

Introduction: The prevalence and patterns of sleep disturbances in neurocutaneous syndromes are variable and understudied. Methods: Cross-sectional study for 18 months at a tertiary care pediatric hospital, involving 100 children with neurocutaneous syndromes aged between 4 and 10 years using the Children's Sleep Habits Questionnaire-Abbreviated. R...

Background Incarcerated prisoners represent a high-risk group for suicide. Little is known about the quality of media reporting of suicide in this group. Methodology Online media reports discussing suicide among prisoners in India were identified by searching three internet search engines and newspaper websites. All such reports between January 20...

We aimed to review the available reports of psychiatric adverse reactions to COVID vaccines. Electronic databases such as PubMed and Google scholar were combed to identify relevant reports. We found a total of 11 reports describing 14 cases of psychiatric reactions; these were mostly altered mental states, psychosis, mania, depression, and function...

Background: Study of temperament in first-degree relatives is an important line of inquiry to substantiate temperament as an etiological marker. Aim: This study aims to compare temperament in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and their healthy siblings and to assess the association between ADHD symptoms and temperamen...

Background: Imbalanced media reporting of suicide may increase suicide risk among vulnerable individuals. Aim: This study aims to assess the quality of suicide reporting in print newspapers of Odisha, a high suicide burden state in Eastern India. Materials and methods: We analyzed all eligible media reports of suicide in selected English and l...

Background: The unprecedented first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic severely impacted mental health services globally. However, the negative impact of such disruptions on people with substance use disorders (SUD) seeking treatment remains unclear. We aim to explore the behaviors adopted by these individuals to overcome the service disruptions. Mate...

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in several changes in the landscape of health-care service delivery. Many care providers have adopted virtual health delivery to circumvent disruptions caused by the pandemic-related physical restrictions and ensure continuity of health-care services.1 The term “telehealth” refers to remote delivery of health-care...

Pathological Intermittent Laughter is often seen in neurological disorders like pseudobulbar palsy, multiple sclerosis, frontotemporal dementia, epilepsies and organic personality changes. Such a presentation in relatively elderly patients mandates an organic workup. However, a protracted presentation over years without any cognitive or neurologica...

Background: Paediatric Acute Onset Neuropsychiatric Syndrome (PANS) is an abrupt onset disorder characterised by obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) or anorexia with concomitant at least two of the seven identified neuropsychiatric symptoms. Objective: To understand the complex presentation of overlapping restrictive eating behaviour and affective...

The COVID-19 pandemic necessitated the closure of various academic institutions, leaving online learning the only option for continuity of education and curricular activities among children and adolescents. It is unclear whether the adoption of online learning will persist in the post-pandemic period. However, enhanced exposure to gadgets impacts t...

Context: Diabetes distress (DD) in India has been studied mainly in the context of depression. Little is known about DD, its determinants, distribution, and its impact. Aims: This study aims to estimate the prevalence of DD and identify its socio-demographic and clinical determinants in type 2 diabetes mellitus patients. To assess the relationsh...

Stigma is a convoluted interaction between history, sociology, psychology, medicine, anthropology, and politics. Often, stigma is inter-twined at cognitive-emotional-behavioral level with a socio-cultural-economic-political milieu and hence distinct from prejudice, discrimination or, stereotypy. Stigma against diseases as a concept has evolved and...

Background Imbalanced portrayal of suicide by the media can have adverse public health consequences. We aimed to evaluate the psychosocial context, as well as the quality of media reporting, of suicide among lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender people, queer and intersex (LGBTQI+) population. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted to evaluat...

Catatonia, originally conceptualised by Kahlbaum in 1868, is a neuropsychiatric condition that has been found to occur concomitantly with several organic and psychiatric conditions. Starting from the era of Kraepelin and Bleuler, this condition was faultily linked with schizophrenia alone; however, over time, greater associations have been found be...

Background Little is known about the factors that determine vulnerability to subsequent suicide in the community following a celebrity suicide. Our objective was to investigate the link between an alleged celebrity suicide and further suicidal behaviour in the community in India. Methods Relevant news articles that reported suicidal behaviour in t...

Despite the availability of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) and being one of the safest modalities of treatment, the use of ECT is still underused in patients with mental retardation with catatonia. However, the available limited literature suggests that ECT can be used safely with proper monitoring and assessment, especially in those presenting wi...

The release of the Telepsychiatry Operational Guidelines 2020 in India, during the COVID-19 pandemic, is a relief for both clinicians and patients. These guidelines embark on initiating and executing naive and recently started telepsychiatry services in India. The document is aligned with other ethical regulations, policies, laws and the 2020 Telem...

Objective: Little is known about changes in quality of media reporting of suicide in the community following a celebrity suicide. Our objective was to compare trends in quality of media reporting of suicide, before and after the suicide of an Indian entertainment celebrity, against the World Health Organization suicide reporting guidelines. Metho...

Aim: This study is aimed to compare the religiosity and spirituality of patients with first-episode depression with suicidal ideation and those with recent suicidal attempts. Additional aim was compare the religiosity and spirituality of patients with first-episode depression with healthy controls. Methods: Patients of first episode depression w...

Aim To evaluate the prevalence of specific beliefs held by people with respect to SARS-2-CoV (COVID-19) infection. Study Design Web-based cross-sectional survey by using nonprobability snow-balling sampling technique. Methodology The survey-specific questionnaire designed based on the review of literature on the prevailing myths/beliefs was circu...

In tandem with increased exposure of children and adolescents to the media during the current digital age, it is also increasingly important to discuss about the influence of celebrity role models on this group. Glorified media portrayals of celebrity lifestyles and their choices may have a knock-on effect on mental health and trigger imitative beh...

Aim of the study: This study aims to evaluate the parenting skills of patients with schizophrenia as perceived by themselves and their children and compare the same with a matched healthy control group of parents and their children. Materials and methods: Fifty-one patients with schizophrenia and their 51 children were assessed on the Alabama Pa...

Background Our objective was to analyze reports of COVID-19 related suicides (CRS) to identify associated factors with a broader goal to inform management and prevention strategies. Methods We searched scientific literature, government websites and online newspaper reports in English and nine regional languages to identify relevant CRS reports. R...

In this report, we focus on the challenges involved in making a diagnosis of Internet Addiction (IA) and Internet Gaming Disorder (IGD), and by extension, problematic internet usage, during this new normal digital age, and provide suggestions from the standpoint of early recognition and intervention among children and adolescents.

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has compromised the physical and mental health of elderly in a complex way. The elderly population, with multiple medical comorbidities and cognitive challenges, are more vulnerable towards increased infection and mortality secondary to COVD-19. This article reviews the multifaceted challenges (physical vulnerability,...

The nationwide Lockdown due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has thwarted healthcare seeking among all group of patients. Patients suffering from mental disorders are the worst hit when this lockdown has halted their access to specialist psychiatric care, access to medicines and psychotherapy etc. This poses a risk for relapse which amounts to poor...

Policies over performing the last rites of the deceased during the pandemic merit a revaluation. Optimal family involvement in decision making on funeral rites and adequate pre-funeral counseling for the bereaved can help in this regard.

Although religiosity is part and parcel of life of most Indians, no standardized scale is available in local language which can make findings comparable with other countries’. This study aims to present the adaptations required in the Centrality of Religiosity Scale (CRS, CRSi-20) for the Indian population. Additionally, the study aimed to compare...

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused an unprecedented impact across the globe. India is the second worst-hit country, with the highest single-day COVID-19 positive case spikes worldwide. A comparative grid of policy measures implemented by countries to contain the spread of novel coronavirus shows that India has the strictest lockdown in the world. The...

Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on graduate medical training

Background: Celebrity suicides have the potential to trigger suicide contagion, particularly when media reporting is detailed and imbalanced. We aimed to assess the quality of media reporting of suicide of a popular Indian entertainment celebrity against the World Health Organization (WHO) suicide reporting guidelines. Methods: Relevant news art...

Sociological perspective of suicide amidst COVID-19

West syndrome (WS) is the most common epileptic syndrome in infancy characterised by epileptic spasms, hypsarrhythmia and neurodevelopmental problems. Epileptic spasms remain in many ways a conundrum, and the ideal intervention, as well as how to screen patients to provide optimal care and certainly its genetic cause, remains puzzling. It is import...

Aim To evaluate the beliefs held by the public regarding sexual health, pregnancy, and breastfeeding during COVID-19 era. Methods It was an online cross-sectional survey conducted through the Survey Monkey® platform and after proper ethical approval a self-designed questionnaire was circulated by the snowballing sampling technique through the What...

Introduction: To mitigate the spread of the pandemic coronavirus infection (COVID-19), governments across the world have adopted "lockdowns" which have confined many individuals to their homes. This disrupts normal life routines, elements of which are important circadian cues. The pandemic is also associated with new stressors, altered roles, and...

Fighting the COVID-19 pandemic has been a herculean task even by the developed countries. India, however, has handled the crisis proactively with various measures. In this connection the strategies taken by Odisha, an Eastern Indian state, are noteworthy and deserve attention considering scale of the efforts taken to contain the spread of the virus...

Ethical dilemmas faced by health care workers during COVID-19

Objective There is no systematic report on pathway to care in autism from tertiary care medical centers of India. The present study was aimed to evaluate the pathways to care among parents of children with autism-seeking treatment at a tertiary care medical center. Methods Cross-sectional, observational study involving parents of 38 children with a...

Introduction: The relation between temperament and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is complex and understood in different ways, with the most common being risk model and spectrum model. However, the evidence is mixed and emerging. Aim: To assess the relationship between ADHD symptoms and temperament dimensions in a clinical sampl...

Background Vitamin D is increasingly recognized as important for brain health, apart from its role in endocrine and bone health. There is a growing recognition of worldwide “epidemic” of Vitamin D deficiency, and growing data from adult population illustrate the association between Vitamin D deficiency and psychiatric disorders. In children, its ro...

The stress vulnerability model emphasizes the interplay of genetic vulnerability, personal characteristics and psychosocial factors in the causation of mental illness. The index case highlights the genesis of psychiatric illness in an adolescent female with a family history of bipolar disorder and substance dependence leading to impaired family int...

Factitious disorder (FD) has diverse presentations but neurological presentation is unusual. In this report, we discuss a case of FD who presented with triparesis, that is, weakness of both lower limbs and right upper limb. Diagnosis of FD was made after detailed clinical evaluation, review of past medical records that revealed extensive evaluation...

Background: Tobacco use and physical inactivity are major risk factors for NCDs. Adequate physical activity keeps one healthy but sedentary life style may contribute to other unhealthy practices like tobacco use. There is a need to identify if and how the two risk factors are interrelated so as to address them more strategically. Objectives: To ass...

This review provides a broad overview of the relationship of personality with cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). There has been a sustained interest over the last half a century on the issue of relationship between personality traits and CVDs. Type A behavior was the initial focus of inquiry as it was observed that individuals who were competitive, ho...