Brain Behaviour Research Foundation of India | Blog

Moms who are depressed often suffer in silence -- but this common illness can also take a heavy toll on their children. That's why getting treated has become an eternal part. Millions of children are caught in the web of maternal depression. As many as one in four women will suffer from this biological illness at some point in her lifetime, including about 10 percent of new mothers who develop postpartum depression (PPD) . Not only is a child with a depressed parent two to four times more likely to develop depression himself before adulthood, but extensive research has shown that a mother's depression, especially when untreated, can interfere with her child's social, emotional, and cognitive development. Helpless and Hopeless People who've been depressed say that it's almost impossible to explain what it feels like. "You become unbearably miserable, lethargic, and incapable of any joy or enthusiasm," says Anne Sheffield, author of Sorr...

While your dreams may be forgotten soon after waking, they don’t just stay in your bedroom. Whatever you’re feeling in your dream — good or bad — affects your daytime mood and social interactions the next day. According to sleep researcher Michelle Carr, studies have shown that people suffering from depression experience “more negative mood and emotion” in their dreams than others, as well as more frequent nightmares. We’re still learning and processing memories during sleep, and that affects the kinds of dreams we have. Here are a few of the most common ones you may experience: Lucid dreams: Lucid dreams happen when you become aware that you’re dreaming. We interviewed Flower Power Herbs & Roots owner, Lata Chettri-Kennedy about the power of mugwort and its effect on lucid dreaming. Mugwort has been known to keep dreamers in REM stages longer, increasing chances of attaining the lucid dream state. Nightmares: Nightmares...

Causes, Symptoms, Treatment and Diagnosis of Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI). Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) causes a slight but noticeable and measurable decline in cognitive abilities including memory and thinking skills. A person with MCI is at an increased risk of developing Alzheimer's or another Dementia. Mild Cognitive Impairment causes cognitive changes that are serious enough to be noticed by the individuals, experiencing them or to other people, but the changes are not severe enough to interfere with daily life or independent functions. Approximately there are 15%-20% people of age 65 or more may have MCI. People with MCI have problems especially related to memory problems and they are more likely to develop Alzheimer's disease or other types of Dementia than people without MCI. However, MCI does not always lead to Dementia. In some persons, it was seen that MCI reverts to normal cognition or remains stable. In other cases, such as, when a medication causes c...

Statistical Comparison of Mental Health Status of Students in India Total population of India according to 2015 data - 1311.1 Million Percentage of Adolescents (13-15 years) population - 5.8% of total population Total population of Adolescents - 75.5 Million  Boys - 39.8 Million                                        Girls - 35.7 Million Suicidal behaviour in past 12 months - Estimated suicide rates per 1,00,000 (aged 15 - 29 years in year 2012) - 35.5 suicides Boys - 34.9 suicides                                          Girls - 36.1 suicides Feeling depressed (felt so sad/hopeless almost everyday for 2 weeks or more in a row) - 25% Boys - 25%     ...

Hallucinations in Everyday Life. Our conscious experiences of the world around us, and of ourselves within it, are kinds of controlled hallucinations that happen with, through and because of our living bodies. Let us take, couple of examples for this. In the rubber hand example, a person's real hand is hidden from the view, and then fake rubber hand is placed in front of him. Then both hands are simultaneously stroke with a paint brush, while the person stares at the fake hand. Now, for most of the people, after a while, this leads to the very uncanny sensation that the fake hand is in fact part of their hand. And the idea is that the congruence between seeing touch and feeling touch on an object that looks like a hand and is roughly where a hand should be, is enough evidence for the brain to make it's best guess that the fake hand is in fact part of the body. Here is another example, which shows just how quickly the brain can use new predictions to change what we conscio...

Human Mind and It's Memory. The human mind can create, exaggerate, or re-invent a memory. We can remember things that didn't even happen. Recalling something that never happened is known as false memory. In an experiment, an interviewer was able to convince 70% of the participants that they had committed a crime, when in reality they had not. Human brain's memory storage capacity is virtually limlitless. The amount of data our brain can store is around 2.5 petabytes which means your brain has as much memory as the entire internet. Aging does not have a direct effect on memory. Memory loss is simply because you use it less as you age. Stress hormones released during jet lag can damage the memory. Your brain is incapable of forming memories while you are drunk. Memories do not decay, but without rehearsal they become harder to access. Our memory starting forming in the womb. This memory is known as pre-natal or fetal memory. Experiments have shown that babies can rem...

Students' Mental Health Issues and Role Of Brain Behaviour Research Foundation of India (BBRFI). This is a story of Sagar who hails from a Dalit family and was the first person from his family to reach college as well as from his village too, to study at Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Kolkata. Sagar was only 19 years old, son of a daily wage worker from a village in Nadia district in West Bengal. He got the admission in IISER through a scholarship and he committed suicide on the exam day. His friends and faculty told that he was anxious and tensed during his first year and he never indulged with his friends for occasional celebrations and always had an excuse that he doesn't want to waste the money. So, what were the reasons behind the suicide of Sagar ? Was he really anxious and tensed about his performance ? Was he getting any support from his family, friends or faculty about his mental health issues ? Is there any medical or mental hea...

Different indicators of Mental Health. Suicidal Ideation And Attempts -  The data taken from Global School based Student Health Survey revealed that suicidal behaviour, namely,  suicidal ideation, plan and attempts  is a common problem among the adolescents in the World Health Organization, South East Asia Region.  Although, this data was not in GSHS   in India,  among the other South East Asian countries * , the percentage of 13-17 year olds students who reported that they seriously thought of attempting suicide in the past one year varied from 4.9%  in Bangladesh to 13.7% in Nepal. The pooled period of past 12 months, showed that the prevalence of suicide ideation across different   countries excluding India was 6.8%. In general scenario, female students reported higher rates of suicidal ideation than male students though the differences were statistically significant at 95% level only three of the countries. * Only ...

Have you ever visited the patel chest in North campus, Delhi  University. If not then go there . you will see a row of students  sitting on a footpath who will be smoking. There is no doubt in that  fact that they know the effects of smoking on brain. But still they  are doing this. Apart from this we are seeing a lot of students who  are taking cocaine, marijuana, weed, alcohol and many more. Drugs are chemicals. When someone puts these chemicals into their  body, either by smoking, injecting, inhaling, or eating them, they tap  into the brain’s communication system and tamper the way nerve cells  normally send, receive, and process information. We know there are at  least two ways through which drugs can effect the brain : 1. Imitating the brain’s natural chemical messengers 2. By changing the composition of the brain Some drugs, like heroin have chemical structures that effect the  neurotransmitter that naturally occurs in ou...

Benefits of Spirituality in Mental Health Care. Spirituality and psychiatry on the face of it, they look very different and diverse, and seems as two different sides of a same river. But, in reality, spirituality can help us to regain status of our mental health. For this exercise, there is no requirement to hold a formal religious belief, to take part in religious practices or belong to an established faith tradition for experiencing spirituality. What is Spirituality ?  There is no straight forward definition or one line defining statement of spirituality. But in general meaning and sense, we can understand spirituality by the following things : 1) Spirituality is something everyone can experience. 2) Spirituality helps us to find meaning and purpose in the things we value. 3) Spirituality can bring new hopes and healing waves in the times of loss and suffering. 4) Spirituality encourages us to seek the best with ourselves, family members, friends and peers. Th...

Mental Health Status of Adolescents in South-East Asia Region. Mental health and substance use disorders are one of the biggest and prominent contributors to the regional and global burden of disease. If we look at the overall scenario, more than 6% of the global burden of disease is attributed to these disorders. As stated by World Health Organization's Global Health Estimates 2015, self-harm or suicides was the second most common cause of mortality after road accident injuries among the people of age group of 15-29 years in the region of South East Asia. Now these days, there is a dual form challenge which presented by Mental Health Problems. First is Public Health and second is Development issue in low and middle income countries and may be central to achieve different Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Proper addressal mechanism and recognition criteria of mental health needs will help a lot to young people in the long run to function better academically, socially a...

Have you seen the movie the movie ' MY NAME IS KHAN'?  Do you know which disease  RIZWAN (Shahrukh Khan) was suffering from? It was  aspergen syndrome. You might notice two things of Rizwan in that movie......... 1. He was much smarter than other folks. 2. He was facing problems in communicating with others. let us know something  more about this: Aspergen syndrome is a disorder characterized by significant difficulties in social interactions and non verbal communication along with restricted and repetitive patterns of behaviour and interest. Social-behavioural symptoms can begin as early as infancy. Characteristic differences are seen in social development, but these changes are hard to identify in toddlers and may be attributed to another condition or not perceived as abnormal. Most cases of Asperger's syndrome are identified when the child is school-aged or older; studies have shown an average age at diagnosis of 11 years. Some of the symptom...