Mens Sana Monographs

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The author talks about two defining influences in his musical career: his father, whom he addressed as 'Pitaji' and his guru, Shri Vinayak Kunte, fondly known as Kunte-guruji to his students. Pitaji taught him, by example and precept, what emotive singing meant and the nuances of poetry appreciation and Urdu pronunciation (talaffuz). Kunte-guruji acquainted him with the richness and profundity of Hindustani Classical Music and the perfection of musical notes or "sur". He also showed, by example, the need to lead a simple, uncomplicated lifestyle to experience the divinity inherent in music...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

The human body is machine-like, but self-moving, self-regulating, and self-adjusting, governed by willpower and intelligence. Aging of the body is basically a maintenance problem and so it could perhaps be postponed by thorough and frequent maintenance. Aging brings on a cascade of ills and health problems leading to deterioration of physical, mental, emotional, and social dimensions of life. This paper deals with solution of the problem philosophically in the light of Indian scriptures without entering into traditional bioethical issues...

Psycho-oncology is a well-established field in the developed countries and 'distress' is recognised as the sixth vital sign in the care of persons diagnosed with cancer. However, centres in India caring for cancer do not make psycho-social aspects an essential part of their care programmes. The present narrative presents the personal journey of the author, reviews the situation of psycho-oncology in India and presents a three-part agenda for action.

Although 80% of the deaths worldwide occur in middle- and low-income countries such as India, there is less awareness of end-of-life care (EOLC) for people with chronic, serious, progressive, or advanced life-limiting illnesses, including dementia. EOLC involves good communication, clinical decision-making, liaison with medical teams and families, comprehensive assessment of and specialized interventions for physical, psychological, spiritual, and social needs of patients and their caregivers. The psychiatrist can play a significant role in each of the above domains in EOLC...

Dualism is historically important in that it allowed the medical practice to be divorced from church oversight. The reductionist approaches of modern Western medicine facilitate a dispassionate and mechanistic approach to patient care, and dualist views promoted by complementary and alternative medicine are also problematic. Behavioural disorders are multifactorally realizable and emerge apparently chaotically from interactions between internal physiological systems and the patient's environment and experiential history...

This paper discusses the suggestion of the notion of a worldview as part of the Science of Well-Being. We present, at first, an allegoric comparison as to why the view of a ternary unity of being (i.e. a coherence of the three parts of the being, body, mind, and psyche to maximize well-being) is difficult to grasp. We also discuss that humans do have unique experiences and memories, but that we are also connected to both all living things and to our environment. Finally, we point to a ternary model of personality to increase our understanding of a person's well-being: Temperament, character, and identity...

In this commentary on the article, "The Task Before Psychiatry Today Redux: STSPIR," (Singh, 2014)[20], the author, while agreeing with most of the paper's findings, proposes a rather parallel judgment that intersects at the same paths ahead. There is a need for widespread and easily available essential mental health services in India. Health agenda must focus on spreading and scaling up psychiatric services. There is also a need to spread awareness of psychiatry and mental health and, as a psychiatrist, one must focus on making psychiatry available to a wider audience...

Attempting to predict future is dangerous. This is particularly true in medical science where change is a result of chance discoveries. Currently, practicing psychiatrists are aware of deficiencies in psychiatric practice. However, we have a number of genuine reasons for optimism and excitement. Genetics, novel treatment approaches, new investigative techniques, large-scale treatment trials, and research in general medicine and neurology will give better insights in psychiatric disorders and its management...

The paper begins by asserting the need for bioethical and related philosophical considerations in the emerging subspecialty Positive Psychiatry. Further discussion proceeds after offering operational definitions of the concepts fundamental to the field - Bioethics, Positive Psychology, Positive Psychiatry and Positive Mental Health - with their conceptual analysis to show their areas of connect and disconnect. It then studies the implications of positive and negative findings in the field, and presents the Positive Psychosocial Factors (PPSFs) like Resilience, Optimism, Personal Mastery, Wisdom, Religion/Spirituality, Social relationships and support, Engagement in pleasant events etc...

Numerous clinical trials have been conducted to determine the utility of antidepressant treatment (ADT), psychotherapy, and combined psycho-pharmaco-psychotherapy (PPPT) in treating major depressive disorder (MDD). While all approaches have shown benefit over placebo to varying degrees, the parallel neurophysiological mechanisms that underlie their efficacy have received little attention. The authors will review and discuss a growing body of literature that relates the factors of treatment selection and response to the principles of neuromodulation, with emphasis regarding how neuroimaging and other experimental data reinforce the need for personalized MDD treatment...

Affective disorders such as anxiety, phobia and depression are a leading cause of disabilities worldwide. Monoamine neuromodulators are used to treat most of them, with variable degrees of efficacy. Here, we review and interpret experimental findings about the relation of neuromodulation and emotional feelings, in pursuit of two goals: (a) to improve the conceptualisation of affective/emotional states, and (b) to develop a descriptive model of basic emotional feelings related to the actions of neuromodulators...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

No abstract text is available yet for this article.