A profile of mental health in India
By Liz Lockhart
Many articles and survey results on mental health in India have recently been in the spotlight. Mental Healthy decided to take a look at the available data and focus on the plight of the mentally ill in this highly populated country.
This video can be found by googling the phrase 'mental health in India' and appears on You Tube uploaded by 'psyneurosc'.
There have been numerous recent reports that the people of India are the most depressed in the world. This has caused the Health Ministry to fight back, clarifying that recently released data from the World Health Organisation (WHO), sponsored study, only released parts of their data.
90,000 people were surveyed across eighteen countries by the WHO’s Mental Health Survey. The findings for India appear shocking as they allegedly show that it has the highest level of depression worldwide. The survey suggests that 36% of Indians are likely to suffer a major depressive episode in their lifetime.
It does appear that only data from Puducherry has been released after this data was extrapolated for the rest of the country. This has been brought to light by AIIMS authorities who say that this figure should be 9%. Researchers in New York say that this arose after problems in interviewing methods elsewhere in India.
Nonetheless, doctors in India are very worried about the incidence of depression and warned that the average age of the depressed in India is 31-years. This is confirmed by a 2009 study by NIMHANS in Bangalore.
India is still waiting for Parliament to introduce the new Mental Health Care Bill which has been waiting to be tabled for a year now. When passed, it will replace the 1987 Act which allows the chaining of the ill and permits electric shock treatment.
After having studied many papers, one thing is for sure, the mental health treatment available in India is inadequate. The Department of Psychiatry, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, reported in 2004 that only a small percentage of the total annual budget is spent on health. Mental health is part of the general health services, and carries no separate budget. A lot has still to be done towards all aspects of mental health care in India in respect of training, research, and provision of clinical services to promote mental health in all sections of society. It would seem that very little, if anything, has changed and that conditions remain the same today.
Another report suggests that India has 3.5 psychiatrists per million people. But, according to health activists, given that these doctors are predominantly in the cities and that mental health treatment facilities in primary health care centres are poor, the number of mentally ill in villages is high. While another reports claims that: Psychological disorders like schizophrenia and depression are on the rise among Kerala youth with consumption of alcohol and drugs aggravating such problems, according to Indian Psychiatric Society (IPS).
Recent studies showed that nearly 10 per cent of the people in the state suffered from schizophrenia, and about 35 per cent of the population were affected by depression, said Kerala Chapter President of IPS, A J John.
"Schizophrenia, depression, bipolar mood disorder and are some of the mental disorders found prevalent in Kerala society. One out every 100 persons suffers from schizophrenia," he said.
Whichever report you look at, it appears that the mental health care in India is desperately inadequate and with the high percentage of people suffering disorders the government really does need to make this a priority. It is so apparent that when mental health issues are not dealt with in their primary stages, secondary disorders, high rates of alcohol and drug abuse, unemployment and other economic and social problems can ensue, perpetuating the problems that caused the disorders in the first place.
