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The article discusses perspectives, attitude, and practice of lithium prescription among psychiatrists in India. Topics include Lithium remains the medication that has approved by the Food and Drug Administration for maintenance treatment of bipolar disorder; and lithium as an augmenting agent for treatment‑resistant depression, around 50% of the psychiatrists have comfortable in prescribing lithium.

Background: Premature luteinization (PL) is defined as a premature rise in serum progesterone concentration on or before the day of ovulation trigger with human chorionic gonadotropin. The incidence of PL varies between 5% and 30% during in vitro fertilization and embryo transfer (IVF-ET). Materials and Methods: The prospective observational study comprising 380 patients undergoing IVF-ET. Blood samples were collected for serum progesterone level estimation on the day of ovulation trigger. Ovum pickup was done 36 h later and serum progesterone levels were correlated with IVF-ET outcome. Study Outcome: To correlate serum progesterone level on the day of ovulation trigger during IVF and its effect on treatment outcome. Results: Mean serum progesterone level in the positive pregnancy group and negative pregnancy group was 0.892 ± 0.752 ng/ml and 0.91 ± 0.688 ng/ml, respectively (P = 0.961). The overall incidence of PL was 12.8% with 12.7% and 13.6% in the agonist and antagonist protocol respectively (P = 0.9001). PL incidence was 13.5% and 13.4% in positive pregnancy and negative pregnancy group (P = 0.223). Conclusion: PL has been associated with 12.8% of the IVF cycles. There was no statistically significant difference observed in the incidence of PL between different IVF stimulation protocols. PL does not seem to affect IVF outcome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Congenital Erythropoietic Porphyria (CEP) is a rare inborn error of metabolism charectorised by a deficiency of UROS III enzyme, an important enzyme in the heme biosythetic pathway. It is an autosomal recessive disease and only around 200 cases have been charectorised so far. The clinical presentation, genetic profile and the genotype-phenotype correlation of this disease is complex, and needs to understand completely for proper diagnose of the case and instituting specific therapy. Mutation analysis in the cases of CEP have revealed all types of mutations in the gene including additions, substitutions, insertion and deletions in the gene. Mutations have also been charectorised in the intron-exon junction as well as in the intron regions resulting in truncated gene product and hence a defective enzyme. Mutations in the promoter region too have been charectorised that affect the rate of gene expression. Trans-acting mutations resulting in a phenotype characteristic of CEP have also been recently charectorised. Various study in the molecular basis of the disease have demonstrated that the mutations result in the production of an unstable protein that gets destroyed rapidly resulting a critically low level of the enzyme in the biosystem. Targetting these factors which regulate the rapid degradation of the deformed proteins have been found to improve the clinical profile of the patient and offers potential for future therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]