Introduction: During their menstrual cycles, many women of reproductive age experience adverse physical, emotional and cognitive symptoms that often recur, usually during the luteal phase of their cycle. The constellation of above symptoms is known as premenstrual syndrome (PMS) if severity of symptoms is moderate to severe and premenstrual dysphoric disorder(PMDD) if severity of symptoms is greater. These symptoms have great potential to interfere with personal, social and occupational functions. Material and methods: This study was conducted among medical students in a women medical college. An awareness programme was conducted in relation to women mental health issues after which a survey was conducted using the premenstrual symptom screening tool (PSST) to screen students suffering with premenstrual symptoms. They were encouraged to write the various coping mechanisms they use to comfort themselves during this period on a separate paper. Results: A total of 635 students participated in the study, of which 177 students met the criteria for premenstrual syndrome and 88 students for premenstrual dysphoric disorder. The most common symptoms reported by the participants were anger/ irritability, tearful/ increased sensitivity and fatigue/lack of energy. Most common coping mechanism among students were sleeping, taking rest and watching movies. Conclusion: Sensitizing young medical students in this topic will help them in coping with this disorder in a more effective way and they would translate this knowledge to general public which will indirectly help many women in the society.

Objectives: To study the prescription patterns of sedative drugs, efficacy and daytime sedation in various psychiatric patients in a tertiary care hospital

Introduction: Diabetes, a common lifestyle disorder, needs strict adherence to medication and self care activities, to maintain good glycemic control. However patients may become distressed due to the disease and its complications, which in turn may affect their motivation. It would be thus worthwhile to assess the impact of diabetes distress on medication adherence. Material and methods: This study was conducted in the Department of Endocrinology at the Sri Venkateswara Institute of Medical Sciences, Tirupati, a tertiary care teaching hospital. Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) were assessed for presence of distress due to diabetes using Diabetes Distress Scale(DDS) and medication adherence using Morisky Adherence Questionnaire (MAQ). Results: Of the 101 patients recruited, only 5 (4.95%) had a total DDS score ≥ 3 consistent with the presence of distress due to diabetes. However on exploring the various components of the DDS score 41(40.59%) had emotional burden and 15(14.85%) had regimen related distress. Of those 5 patients with diabetes distress, none had good adherence to medication while 64.5% of the remaining 96 patients had good adherence (p=0.007). Conclusion: Diabetes distress (though present in only a minority of patients), is associated with poor adherence to medication regime.

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