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Background Despite its favorable pharmacological profile and efficacy in major depression and anxiety disorders, evidence for the use of venlafaxine in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is limited. We sought to examine the real-world effectiveness of venlafaxine from a large database of an OCD clinic in India. Methods A total of 1704 consecutive patients who registered at the OCD clinic between June 2014 and December 2016 were evaluated with structured interviews and scales. Patients with symptomatic OCD (Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Severity ≥16) despite treatment with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors and initiated on venlafaxine were included for analysis. The main outcome measures were response as defined by 35% or more reduction in the Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Severity total score and “all-cause discontinuation.” Results Of a total of 65 patients who were eligible for analysis, 29(45%) were responders at the end of 16 weeks and 27 (42%) continued to remain on venlafaxine. Repeated measures analysis of variance yielded significant reduction in the Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Severity total score (F(1.29, 82.4) = 56.54, P < 0.001, partial η2 = 0.469). On regression analysis, only lower insight (P = 0.048) predicted poor response. Conclusions The study suggests that venlafaxine may be useful in a proportion of patients with poor response to selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors and therefore requires to be studied in controlled trials.

Objective: Adverse childhood experiences are linked to the development of a number of psychiatric illnesses in adulthood. Our study examined the pattern of adverse childhood experiences and their relation to the age of onset of major psychiatric conditions in individuals from families that had ⩾2 first-degree relatives with major psychiatric conditions (multiplex families), identified as part of an ongoing longitudinal study. Methods: Our sample consisted of 509 individuals from 215 families. Of these, 268 were affected, i.e., diagnosed with bipolar disorder ( n = 61), obsessive–compulsive disorder ( n = 58), schizophrenia ( n = 52), substance dependence ( n = 59) or co-occurring diagnoses ( n = 38), while 241 were at-risk first-degree relatives who were either unaffected ( n = 210) or had other depressive or anxiety disorders ( n = 31). All individuals were evaluated using the Adverse Childhood Experiences – International Questionnaire and total adverse childhood experiences exposure and severity scores were calculated. Results: It was seen that affected males, as a group, had the greatest adverse childhood experiences exposure and severity scores in our sample. A Cox mixed effects model fit by gender revealed that a higher total adverse childhood experiences severity score was associated with significantly increased risk for an earlier age of onset of psychiatric diagnoses in males. A similar model that evaluated the interaction of diagnosis revealed an earlier age of onset in obsessive–compulsive disorder and substance dependence, but not in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Conclusion: Our study indicates that adverse childhood experiences were associated with an earlier onset of major psychiatric conditions in men and individuals diagnosed with obsessive–compulsive disorder and substance dependence. Ongoing longitudinal assessments in first-degree relatives from these families are expected to identify mechanisms underlying this relationship.

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Asparagus racemosus is a well known plant of medicinal value, with proved antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory properties. Antioxidants are reported to enhance wound healing. The present study is aimed to investigate the wound healing profile of Asparagus racemosus on incision and excision wound models in rats. The aqueous extract of the roots of Asparagus racemosus is made use of to study the effect on wound healing in albino rats using incision and excision wound models in 200mg/kg and 400mg/kg orally for 10 to22 days. The skin breaking strength, epithelialisation period, wound contraction rate were estimated. The extract showed significant improvement in the epithelialisation period, remarkable enhancement of wound contraction rate, increased skin breaking strength in the test groups suggesting the possible utility of this plant to enhance wound healing.