Sir,
Recently, a highly informative and crisply written article has been published which has high viewership and this survey was conducted by a sincere team of researchers.[1] All the authors' work was highly appreciable and this IPS team has done immense service for the nation and deserve more than that. However, some suggestions in the material and methods section would have added more strength to this survey.
First, the authors mentioned that it was translated into 11 Indian languages along with English. Psychometric properties and related research work depiction in the article would have added more value to the paper and interest to the readers. The survey questionnaire included the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) and the Warwick Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale.[2,3] The 10-item questions in the PSS ask about feelings and thoughts during the last month. For this survey, the authors had reduced the time limit to 15 days. The time period was reduced, it is not mentioned about the assessment scale as modified version. Its psychometric aspect is not documented. The age norms mentioned in the manual for Warwick Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale were age above 16 years, but in the present survey, some of the participants were 14 years and the upper age limit was 87 years. In [Table 1], the frequencies of the variable retired occupation (n = 99) and retired profession (n = 5) is duplicated. The participants included 764 doctors, it is not mentioned the frequencies of variable mental health professionals and allied professionals. Third, the authors did not have a preset hypothesis, nor did they explain for what outcome they had powered their sample size calculations. The sample size was small and the period for the survey was short only from April 6, 2020, to April 24, 2020. The conclusions section was too brief and lacks the brevity of this important survey. Many findings and the addition of some more points as per aims and objectives would have strengthened this important part of the document. The article did not discuss the effects of lockdown on severe depression and suicide, which might have been observed by the participants of this online survey in this severe stressful situations.[4] These important methodological issues have many clinical implications and Indian young researchers must record about these points while replicating the finding of this survey in future research work.
In summary, this online survey was a historical one done in crucial time of lockdown and was the need of the hour. This survey brought attention to the extent of psychiatric morbidity due to lockdown and the prevailing COVID pandemic to the mental health professionals, researchers, social scientists, and policy planners in mental health. Furthermore, such surveys in mental health are warranted in our country.
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Conflicts of interest
There are no conflicts of interest.
REFERENCES
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