Psychiatry and Society

10yr window to treat mental health problems affecting academic performance Mental health & academic performance Mental health has a direct impact on academic performance in children. Neglected childhood psychiatric disorders like ADHD and Learning Disorders adversely affect the child’s academic performance and educational attainment. Poor educational outcomes affect the child’s health, employment, and status as an adult. This is especially so for psychiatric conditions that are seen at 7 years and persist beyond 16 years of age. Mental health disorders in children have a greater impact on academic performance than chronic physical illness. The presence of a single mental condition results in morel board exams failures and backlogs. This association is more than for chronic illnesses of the neurological, lung, heart, or digestive systems. Physical impairments are not associated with exam failures. More than half the teenagers who fail to complete their secondary edu...

What is normal? A 22-year-old man jumped into the tiger's enclosure at the local zoo on Saturday and was mauled on his back, stomach and thighs. The previous night he had dreamt that he was to free the big cat and that it wouldn't kill him. "See, it didn't kill me," he said. Doctors treating him said, "he has received injuries but he would be well soon ... he was not suicidal." What is normal? The concept of normality is at the core of mental health. Without a concept of what is normal one cannot identify the abnormal. In this post we explore the concept of normality from a mental health point of view. Normality as Health The WHO has defined health as a complete state of physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. Later they added spiritual well-being to the definition. So health is a positive state, not just the absence of disease. This concept looks at normality from a biological or medical...