Background: Suicide is a psychiatric emergency. It contributes for substantial portion of preventive deaths. Medical professionals bear responsibility of providing optimal primary care to a suicidal person and reducing stigma towards suicide. Their attitudes towards suicide or a suicidal person determines the quality of care given to them. This study attempts to quantitatively assess attitudes of undergraduate medical students towards suicide and a suicidal person. Materials and methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in a medical college hospital of Kerala. Total 287 first& second year medical students who were not exposed to psychiatry teaching were recruited for the study by total enumeration method. Eskin's attitude towards suicide scale (E-ATSS) and Eskin's Social Reactions to Suicidal Persons Scale (E-SRSPS) were administered. Responses were collected in 5 point likert scale ranging from 'completely disagree' to 'completely agree'. Results: On E-ATSS, Communicating psychological problems had a high mean score with minimal standard deviation(4.25+/-0.35) & acceptability of suicide scored the least(1.46+/-0.62) while the social acceptance of a suicidal person & helping had high scores (4.34+/-0.82, 4.28+/-0.23) on E-ATSPS. Conclusion: Students participated in this study have more of rejecting attitudes towards suicide. But less than half of them take it as a sign of mental illness. When it comes to attitude towards a suicidal person, our medical students have a very high acceptance score and also are ready to help them. Studies involving students who complete undergraduate psychiatry training will help to know about the change that the training brings into the attitudes.

BACKGROUNDThere are very few events which affect a person's entire lifestyle as profoundly as a spinal cord injury (SCI) and more so the traumatic injuries. The victims in their young and productive years face multiple medical, social and vocational complications. This causes burden and suffering not only to the victim but also to their families, the health care system and the community. Despite this, a comprehensive rehabilitation program including assessment of caregiver burden can often enable these individuals to function adequately. Objectives 1. To assess the burden in caregivers of traumatic spinal cord injured patients. 2. To correlate caregiver burden with patient's disability, handicap status and quality of life.

BACKGROUND Traumatic myelopathies account for significant proportion of people with spinal cord injuries admitted to rehabilitation unit and it becomes important to assess the functional outcome of these individuals for formulating the treatment plan. The studies incorporating all the measures of outcome i.e., impairment, disability, handicap and quality of life with appropriate instruments in this population are sparse and very few studies have been done from our country. Hence in this study an attempt was made to evaluate the above through International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) model. OBJECTIVES 1. To assess the Quality of Life (QOL) in traumatic SCI individuals 2. To study the correlation between QOL and impairment/disability/handicap. METHODOLOGY A cross-sectional study was carried out on fifty patients of traumatic SCI visiting our centre over a period of one year and one year post injury. Patients were assessed by ASIA impairment scale, Functional Independence Measure (FIM), Craig's Handicap Assessment and Reporting Technique (CHART) and WHOQOL-BREF after screening with MMSE. RESULTS 90% of patients were males, more than half were in their productive years of life; 82% had incomplete SCI injuries and 76% had higher grades of impairment. Younger patients had better scores on FIM and all domains of CHART except economic selfsufficiency. All domains of QOL were negatively affected by SCI. There were significant positive correlations between impairment and disability, disability and QOL, disability and handicap. Different domains of CHART had variable correlations with QOL domains. CONCLUSIONS This study shows that SCI negatively influences all the conceptual components of ICF model. SCI affects QOL, activity and participation of an individual. Various factors like age, completeness of injury, marital status, etc., affects QOL of an SCI individual. This finding highlights the need for vigilance among rehabilitation personnel to look at these in every SCI individual and plan for appropriate interventions.