At any given time, one in ten adults in India experiences one or more mental health conditions. Despite this significant burden, the self-reported treatment gap as per the National Mental Health Survey 2016 remains alarmingly high at 84.5%. The treatment gap is highest for substance use disorders (91%, excluding tobacco use disorder) and lowest for […]
MINDS Sapiens: Psychiatry Club
The Magic of Young Enthusiastic Doctors!! As a postgraduate teacher, we naturally spend more time in psychiatry training of postgraduates in most medical colleges where both postgraduates and undergraduate medical students are enrolled. Recently, I took a session for first-year MBBS students during the Foundation Programme and introduced them to our Psychiatry Club (MINDS Sapiens), […]
Binge, Scroll, Repeat: Understanding Modern Technology Addiction
Technology use today extends far beyond online gaming, and with it, newer behavioural addictions are becoming increasingly visible. One of the most common patterns is OTT binge-watching, where individuals watch multiple episodes or entire seasons in one stretch. Occasional binge-watching may be harmless, but repeated cycles can disturb sleep, reduce productivity, and lead to social […]
Antidepressants: Myths vs. Facts
Despite the widespread use of antidepressants in modern psychiatric practice, misconceptions and stigma continue to shape patient and professional attitudes alike. These myths not only lead to treatment hesitancy, missed diagnoses, and suboptimal outcomes but also complicate clinical decision-making for young psychiatrists navigating the realities of medication management. In an era of instant online information, […]
AI-assisted CBT: Exploring the future of CBT with AI
Today, as AI is slowly creeping its way into everything we do and proving its usefulness in its own unique ways, it makes sense to explore its utility in providing Cognitive behavioural therapy too. Cognitive behavioural therapy, or CBT, is a structured process of understanding a person’s thoughts, questioning them, and restructuring them to break […]
The Art of Being Understood
The first time I sat across a patient as a newly crafted doctor, I realised that the stethoscope, to detect cardiac murmurs, wasn’t the hardest tool to use. Words were.It was a small public healthcare OPD room, the kind where the wall paint has long given up to the invasion of black fungi, and the […]
Gleanings from IToP National Conference
The medical field finds itself in a new landscape today. Patients do not just want to be diagnosed and prescribed for the illnesses they have. They want to be heard, understood, and engaged with as a human being. And nowhere is this paradigm shift more palpable than in Psychiatry. With this broader theme in mind, […]
The Digital Mirror: Reflecting on Social Media and Adolescent Mental Health
In today’s hyperconnected world, social media has become an inseparable part of adolescent identity formation. While it offers a virtual playground for expression and belonging, it also poses subtle psychological challenges that clinicians increasingly encounter in practice. Adolescents often measure self-worth through “likes” and online validation — creating a fragile sense of identity vulnerable to […]
Don’t Just Scroll, Read Between the Lines
In the age of social media where everyone tries to project their best self, there might be signs of cry for help which often remain unnoticed. Let us try to read in between the lines beyond these filters and trendy sounds. Dr. Rahul Sahare Junior ResidentDepartment of Psychiatry,MGM Medical College, Indore
Virtual Autism
Post Covid, the screen time in children under 5 years has seen a rapid surge and this trend has set in over the last decade. A major shift in lifestyle can be attributed to easy accessibility to content on smart phones and television. Twenty years ago, with limited access to coloured screen television and no […]