In tobacco care, we often talk about smoking and secondhand smoke. But there is another exposure that is easy to miss and just as important to understand: thirdhand smoke. It is the toxic residue that remains after a cigarette has been smoked, and it stays behind on walls, furniture, clothes, carpets, dust, and cars. This […]
Learning by Association: Classical Conditioning
How do we account for most soft drink advertisements showing the drink being consumed in association with friends having a great time, celebrations, music and exciting adventures? This marketing approach leverages a simple principle, first discovered and described by Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov, called classical conditioning. Pavlov was engaged in the study of digestion in […]
Reflections from an AA Meeting
“I am an alcoholic.” It is a sentence, but it is also a statement. It is the mandatory opening line for anyone speaking at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. To anyone, it may seem like a simple futile introduction, almost routine, but when I heard it, I felt the weight behind it. It was an acknowledgement […]
External Posting Essentials: Part 1 – Before You Leave
The external posting is among the most underutilised opportunities in Indian psychiatry residency training. Each year, hundreds of MD Psychiatry residents are sent to other institutions for four to twelve weeks of training in subspecialty areas their parent departments cannot offer, most commonly child and adolescent psychiatry, psychotherapy, and deaddiction medicine. Some return transformed. Many […]
The Auspicious Day
Millions of people worldwide believe certain days are auspicious and specific times in a day are auspicious. There will be millions of days that are not auspicious and billions of hours that are not auspicious if we get into this belief system. Just as I joined District Government Hospital as an Intern, I vaguely remember […]
When Help is Needed
Medical students often seek help when they or someone they know is going through a medical issue. But when it comes to mental health, they remain hesitant to approach the professionals. Sometimes it is due to stigma; sometimes it is just not knowing where to begin. Academic pressure, examinations, long study/work hours, and the demands […]
Trivia Time
– MINDS Newsletter Team