My Perspective

Self-control is the ability to regulate one's emotions, thoughts, and behaviour in the face of temptations and impulses. It is an aspect of inhibitory control and classified as an executive function since it is a cognitive process that is necessary for regulating one's behaviour in order to achieve specific goals. However, the lack of self-control or excessive self-control both extremes are deleterious to one's mental health.  On the one hand we have individuals who are into substance abuse who are characterised by their desire for instant gratification in other words their lack of self-control to delay reward. They show greater temporal discounting due to their impulsivity which leads to their addiction to narcotics, gambling, shopping, overeating, pornography etc.  On the other hand we have individuals with Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder (OCPD) - a mental health condition that causes an extensive preoccupation with perfectionism, organization and control over...

I just read the latest review on sleep abnormalities in schizophrenia. Here are some of the key points: Individuals in the early course of schizophrenia experience considerable sleep loss and overall shallower sleep, and hence the higher rates of insomnia in these subjects.  Sleep disruptions in these patients are also likely involved in psychotic symptomatology, where psychotic experiences worsen sleep and sleep disturbances exacerbates psychotic symptoms. A vicious cycle! Altered sleep characteristics shared among First Episode and Chronic patients included increased sleep onset latency, increased wake after sleep onset, and reduced sleep efficiency. Thus difficulties in initiating and maintaining sleep first occur in full-blown psychosis and remain relatively stable throughout the course of the disorder. Reference : [1] Bagautdinova, Joëlle, Ahmad Mayeli, James D. Wilson, Francesco L. Donati, Rebekah M. Colacot, Nicholas Meyer, Paolo Fusar-Poli, and Fabio Ferrarelli. "Sleep...

In ancient Indian scriptures, specifically yoga philosophy, OM is considered a sacred syllable or mantra whose repeated prolonged utterance as in a form of meditation is associated with positive and beneficial effects on humans. What is the science behind it? Here are three studies that scientifically investigated the effect of OM chanting.

Pranayama (literally means 'lengthening of life') is a practice of yoga that focusses on breath control to improve health and wellbeing. How does it work? Since our mood affects our breathing, hence we control our mood by regulating our breath. This is achieved by rhythmically performing inhalation and exhalation. In fact the power of meditation comes from its focus on breath modulation. A number of scientifically conducted studies show that breathing techniques alleviate anxiety, stress, and insomnia while improving mood. In fact, cardiac coherence breathing exercises can stabilize [1] the heartbeat and have a powerful ability to dampen anxiety. One recommended way to practice breathing technique is  365 method . At least three times a day, breathe at a rhythm of six cycles per minute (i.e. five seconds inhaling, five seconds exhaling) for five minutes. And do it every day, 365 days a year. Reference:  [1]  https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/proper-breathing-bri...

I was reading the NICE guidelines on "Consensus statement on high-dose antipsychotic medication", latest (2014) version. In the section on 'Potential gender and ethnicity factors and high-dose strategies' it says: Genetic polymorphisms at both the metabolic level and site of action are likely to contribute to the overall response to a particular drug. Some Asian patients might have a lower dose threshold for a variety of Extrapyramidal side-effects.

Here are some limitations of using Randomized Control Trials (RCT) for Mental Health (MH) research. In the selection of people to RCTs, one needs to include subjects of a single condition or diagnostic category. However, in psychiatry the diagnosis can be unstable, changing, apart from secondary conditions, undiagnosed comorbid conditions. This also implies that the external validity of the RCT results are limited for MH.

Psychotic-like-experiences (PLE) are prodromal symptoms of psychosis. Their analysis not only has the advantage of early detection but also circumvents the disadvantage of confounding due to medication. These motivate the authors [1-2] to study