Abraham Maslow was a humanistic theorist who did exemplary work in the field of mental health. His thinking was surprisingly original - most psychologists before him had been concerned with the abnormal and the ill. He wanted to know what constituted positive mental health He proposed hierarchy of needs which is relevant even today. The present paper presents a brief overview of his life & his work.

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Masturbation is a normal part of psychosexual development. It becomes troublesome when it becomes ego-dystonic & compulsive in nature. The present article reviews the literature available on compulsive masturbation and provides a case report of a middle aged male who presented with compulsive masturbation and was treated successfully with fluvoxamine.

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Asperger's syndrome is an autism spectrum disorder characterized by significant difficulties in social interaction, along with restricted and repetitive patterns of behaviour and interests. In contrast to other autism spectrum disorders, there is relative preservation of linguistic and cognitive development. Although not a essential diagnostic criteria, physical clumsiness and atypical use of language are frequently reported.

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The advances in the area of Information Technology has a pervasive influence on the society. There is no field where IT cannot help in improving its quality. IT has improved the processing speed of information, ease with which information can be transferred and shared. It is bringing more transparency in services and made the life more comfortable. Thru this paper I am putting my humble efforts to share with mental health professionals how Information Technology(IT) and Information Technology Enabled Services (ITES) can help us and our clients to improve the quality, reliability, convenience, comfort, cost effectiveness and development of services. I have discussed various areas within the field of mental health to which IT and ITES can contribute. This article is also intended to stimulate all our colleagues to start using and using more of IT and ITES in psychiatric practice. Tele-medicine and Tele-psychiatry are used interchangeably in this article as we are also physicians and will be interacting with other medical colleagues' while delivering the services.

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The way diet influences personality has been well talked about in ancient Indian texts. The present paper reviews the literature available in this field.

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Background Caregivers of patients are at greater risk of mental and physical health problems. Aims To compare the caregiver burden in psychiatric illness and chronic medical illness. Methods. The caregiver burden was assessed on Montgomery Borgatta Caregiver Burden Scale. Results The caregiver burden in families of psychiatric clients is higher than that of other medical illness, & increaseswith the duration of illness Conclusion Interventions aiming at reduction of caregiver burden should be routinely incorporated in the managementof persons with mental illness.

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Background Mental illnesses are associated with stigma with associated unfavorable societal attitudes. Aims To study the attitudes of people towards mental illness. Methods The attitude of caregivers of persons with mental illness & also lay public was assessed on instruments. Results A favorable attitude towards mental illnesses was found in the sample. Caregivers had more positive attitude than the lay public. Conclusion Knowledge of the prevailing attitudes of people towards mental illness helps in adopting methods to make these attitudes more positive, which helps in better outcome & recovery.

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Background: The psychological morbidity of family members of mentally ill is generally overlooked. This study focuses on the psychological morbidity in family members. Aim: To study psychological morbidity and coping mechanisms used by the family members of mentally ill admitted in psychiatric hospital. Methods: A sample of 45 family members of mentally ill admitted in The Institute of Mental Health, Hyderabad was taken. Severity of illness in patients and psychological morbidity and coping mechanisms used by the family members were assessed. Results: There is no significant psychological morbidity among the family members Conclusions Acceptance is the most common coping mechanism used by family members of persons with mental illness.

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Background Criminal behavior is said to have an association with some psychiatric illnesses, esp. Schizophrenia. There is a modest significant relationship between schizophrenia and violence & crime which persists even after controlling demographic and socio-economic variables. Aims To find out what diagnostic categories of psychiatric illnesses are prevalent in the patients admitted to prison ward of Institute of Mental Health, Hyderabad. Methods Retrospective analysis of records of prison ward patients was done. Results One in five of the patients admitted to prison ward had Schizophrenia mostly of paranoid type. Majority of patients were readmissions, because of poor compliance. Conclusions There is a dire need to strengthen prison mental health services.

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