Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) is an acquired acute autoimmune polyradiculoneuropathy. The 2 features considered essential for the diagnosis of GBS are progressive motor weakness and areflexia. There have been several descriptions of reflex preservation and hyperreflexia in axonal variant of GBS in Chinese, Japanese, and European populations but it is not common in the Indian subcontinent. We report 2 such cases discussing the pathophysiology and management aspects. This case report is to impress upon treating physicians and neurologists in training that a hyperreflexic variant of GBS albeit rare, should not be missed in a given clinical setting.

BACKGROUNDAnxiety disorders are the most common psychiatric problem in school going children worldwide. OBJECTIVEThis study was done to find the prevalence and risk factors for anxiety disorders in adolescents in rural Kerala. METHODSA school based survey was done among children of 10 to 13 years using SCARED anxiety scale. Specific items in the SCARED scale were used to assess panic disorder, generalised anxiety disorder, separation anxiety disorder, social anxiety disorder and school avoidance, detailed assessments of various sociodemographic variables were also done. RESULTSA total of 250 children were studied -147 girls and 103 boys. Anxiety disorders were found to be highly prevalent in the study population (45.6% affected) and girls were disproportionately more affected (53.4% vs. 40.1%, p = 0.0389). It was present among all socio-economic strata. CONCLUSIONThese findings call for urgent remedial measures involving the students, parents, teachers, school management, policy makers and the media.

This study was designed to find the prevalence of psychiatric co morbities in patients with alcohol dependence and to assess the risk factors for the same. All the patients with alcohol dependence syndrome (ADS) who presented during the study period were screened. ADS were diagnosed as per ICD-10 criteria. All the patients underwent detailed clinical and neuropsychiatric evaluation. BPRS (Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale) was used to assess psychiatric comorbidities and MINI Scale (Mini International Neuropsychiatry Interview) to assess suicidality. Of the 100 patients with ADS identified during the study period, 14(14%) were diagnosed as having psychiatric comorbity. Patients with psychiatric comorbidity were more likely to have a history of past DSH (Deliberate self-harm) attempt. The patients with psychiatric comorbidity also had higher suicidality scores. All patients with alcoholism must be evaluated for comorbid psychiatric problems and suicide risk.

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