AQ Khan stresses free psychiatric services to the poor

AQ Khan stresses free psychiatric services to the poor.

- M. Waqar Bhatti

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Karachi, Pakistan

Speaking at an awareness seminar at the Dow University of Health and Sciences (DUHS), nuclear scientist Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan has called for the provision of free psychiatric treatment and assistance to all public sector hospitals in the country, as mental health issues and psychiatric illnesses were on the rise.

“Unfortunately, the provision of psychiatric treatment is ignored at most medical educational institutes in the country despite the fact that psychiatric and mental health issues are on the rise in the society due to poverty, law and order and economic problems” he said.

The seminar was jointly organized by Institute of Behavioral Sciences (IBS), Karachi, and the DUHS to create awareness about psychiatric issues and modern developments in the field of psychiatry.

Dr AQ Khan said that Karachiites were more likely to suffer psychiatric disorders than other Pakistanis because of economic problems and the pace of life in the city. IBS Karachi has been providing quality psychiatric services and medicines to poor patients free of cost.

Dr AQ Khan also highlighted the role of media in creating awareness about mental health issues. He pointed out that in a society where mental health is considered as a taboo, the media plays an important role in sensitising people to mental disorders and highlighting the importance of seeking psychiatric assistance for such illnesses from qualified psychiatrists.

Dr Khan also called for close cooperation between the IBS Karachi and the DUHS for establishing educational activities at the IBS.

Such activities would facilitate research in psychiatry and modern medicinal techniques, both of which are essential for the treatment of mental health issues.

Other speakers included

Dr Raza-ur-Rehman, the

associate Professor of Psychiatry at Civil Hospital Karachi, who stated that psychiatry is the field devoted to the study and treatment of mental disorders.

These mental disorders include various affective, behavioral, cognitive and perceptual abnormalities.

“In Pakistan, there is a large number of people suffering from psychiatric illness but over 90 percent of these patients prefer not to seek psychiatric treatment,” he informed the audience. He added that some 30 percent of psychiatric patients have symptoms that still unexplained by scientific medicine.

He maintained that hypertension or high blood pressure is also a psychological symptom which creates more complications for the patients.

“Hostility towards patients with psychiatric illnesses or symptoms should be avoided at all costs during the course of treatment” he advised, while asking the media to help rid perception that mental disorders were incurable.

Dr Rehman observed that a mental disorder is not like a headache, flu or cough, which one can get rid of by taking medicines for a few days.

“All psychiatric disorders are not psychosis, which is acute form of mental illness” he said.

Other who spoke on the occasion included, Senator Haseeb Khan, Vice-Chancellor, DUHS Prof. Masood Hameed Khan, Dr Ishaq Sarhandi and Dr Iqbal Pirzada.