PESHAWAR: Senior psychiatrists on Monday disclosed that 34 per cent people in Pakistan were suffering from anxiety and depression, saying there ?are only 400 psychiatrists for 200 million people in Pakistan.
They were speaking at a seminar held in connection with World Mental Health day, organised by the Department of Psychiatry of Khyber Teaching Hospital (KTH) Peshawar.Prof Syed Mohammad Sultan, Dr Mohammad Idrees, Dr Mohammad Shafique, Dr Iftikhar ?Hussain, Prof Roohul Muqeem, Medical Director KTH, Prof Ijaz Hasan Khan, principal of Khyber Medical College (KMC), and Brig (r) Dr Fazle Akbar addressed the seminar.
Prof Sayed Sultan highlighted the mental health problems in Pakistan. He said ?the prevalence of anxiety disorders and depression is 34 per cent in general population. “If we project the prevalence of other common disorders like dementia, major mental illnesses such as schizophrenia, mania, OCD, and disorders of childhood, it comes out to be 50 per cent. Seven million people in Pakistan suffer from substance abuse disorder,” he said.
He said the Royal College of Psychiatrists London recommends one psychiatrist for every 10, 000 population , while in Pakistan we have only 400 psychiatrists for a population of 200 million.
“Thus we have hardly one psychiatrist for half a million population. Keeping in view the gravity of the mental health problems and the shortage of doctors and mental health resources, we need to reduce this mental health gap by training more doctors and mental health professionals,” Prof Sultan said.
He said children, who are the architects of our future, suffer from various psychiatric disorders and we have only three child psychiatry departments in the country. Prof Sultan said Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has no child psychiatry department and that’s they have planned to establish one child psychiatry department in the KTH.
“Dementia which is a devastating illness of memory and cognition is expected to increase as a result of increased life expectancy with improvement in health services and better nutrition all over the World. We need to establish an old age psychiatry department in the KTH. The project proposal has been sent to the provincial government,” ?he told the participants.
Prof Sultan added that the Mental Health Act need to be modified and promulgated in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and other provinces at the earliest, which will protect the rights of our patients and also create a lot of jobs opportunities for psychologists, social workers, and other mental health professionals.
The Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, which is an effective type of psychotherapy is not available to our people due to lack of trained personnel, he pointed. In this regard Psychiatry Department Khyber Medical College and KTH is starting a six months CBT certificate course very shortly. This certificate course will be affiliated with Khyber Medical University.
Prof Sultan pointed to the shortage of resources for health in general and for mental health in particular. “The mental health budget is very meagre, almost non-existent. The federal government and provincial government should double the health budget and the proportion of mental health budget should be increased four times at least, to provide some decent services to the people,” he suggested.
Prof Sultan urged the integration of mental health in primary health. He wished and hoped that mental health will keep improving for the people of Pakistan. Dr Ijaz Hassan Khan talked about the stigma associated with psychiatric illness.
Prof Roohul Muqeem, chief guest of the event, on the occasion talked about the prevalence of mental health problems in Pakistan and appreciates and realizes the importance and need of better mental health facilities for our people.
He said he supported the suggestions and recommendations made by Prof Syed Sultan, president Pakistan Psychiatric Society. He said he would ensure that the establishment of Child Psychiatry and Old Age Psychiatry Units would be established in the hospital with the approval of the Board of Governors.
Dr Mohammad Idrees associate professor in Psychiatry Unit at the KTH, concluded the session by thanking all the delegates and the chairman Organising committee and his team for organising the activity.
