HYDERABAD: Around 154 million people suffered from depression in different parts of the world among them 25 million people were in grip of schizophrenia, impairment in the perception of reality.
Eminent Consultant Psychiatrists Dr. Darya Khan Laghari and Dr. Abdul Hameed Memon shared their views with APP in connection with the “World Mental Health Day,” to be observed on October 10.
Dr. Darya Khan said that the mental illnesses were common to countries of all sort and people with these disorders were often subjected to social isolation, poor quality of life and increased death rates involving suicides.
He said that large segment of the population suffered from diverse mental diseases and research indicated that 10 to 20 percent people suffering from depression, five to eight from anxiety and one percent from schizophrenia.
He said that there were many factors contributed to high rates of mental health problems in Pakistan. The inter-family marriages, high rates of birth injuries, economic decline, growing unemployment and rapidly changing cultural and social values were some of the causes, he added.
Dr. Darya Khan said that recently published report of the World Health Organization (WHO) revealed that 50 million people suffered from epilepsy and 24 million from Alzheimer’s and other related disorders.
Dr. Abdul Hameed Memon while sharing his views said that Pakistan is a country of 190 million people and a large segment of its population suffered from mental illnesses, added.
Dr. Memon said that seven percent of children under 11 years of age suffered from various psychiatric disorders.
He informed that dementia presenting as forgetfulness affected five percent of the population above 65 years of age.
He said that due to lack of awareness, people with psychological and emotional problems often visited faith healers, spiritual leaders, homeopathic doctors, magicians and hakims. There are limited numbers of mental health professionals in the country, he said.
Dr. Abdul Hameed Memon underlined the need of the psychiatric education at undergraduate and postgraduate level needed to be improved, adding that foreign experts participating in educational research workshop recommended that one third of final year MBBS should be utilized for studying psychiatry.
He suggested that steps should be taken to remove the stigma attached to mental health problems and their treatment. He said medical research had discovered new drugs and therapies to treat mental disorders, but mental illness is the most misunderstood amongst illnesses and that capitalism was responsible for the increase in mental abnormalities.
Dr. Hameed Memon said social and economic pressures were making people mentally sick and the only way to save oneself from the illness was to lead a moderate life.
He said that these factors destroy the human health of the people living under its umbrella and increases depression in their minds, which ultimately affect their mental health.
Both the Psychiatrist consultants said that people with mental health conditions around the world experience stigma, discrimination and wide ranging violations which strips them off their dignity.
They have underlined the need of creating mass awareness about in depth causes of increasing mental illness that the adults could be aware of the real facts and adopt precautionary measures in order to save their lives as well as future generation.
They also urged for at least one psychiatric unit in each district of the country in order to provide adequate treatment to the concerned patients.
