Observe symptoms of psychiatric disorders; reasons for psychiatric illness-Expert

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Observe symptoms of psychiatric disorders; reasons for psychiatric illness-Expert

KI Singh/ royalpatiala.in/ Chandigarh

“In US and Europe , equal emphasis is given to psychiatry along with other medical specialities during education and training to medical students, unlike in India where psychiatric training is comparatively less compared to other medical subjects during MBBS training.”

This was stated by Dr. Amar N Bhandary, a noted psychiatrist while addressing the senior citizens during a health talk on ‘Psychiatric problems in Old Age and its treatment’ at Shalby Hospital, Mohali on Sunday.

Among others Satpal S Gambhir CAO of Shalby Hospital was also presented during occasion.

He said, as a result, the medical practitioners may not be fully trained in the guidelines of treating and managing psychiatry problems. The general public is also likely to neglect seeking treatment for psychiatric problems due to lack of awareness on such conditions.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has rated India amongst countries that have far less psychiatrists than required for the population. In India we have very few psychiatrists as compared to the ratio of problem in the population. Some districts in the country have no psychiatrists at all, Dr Bhandary pointed out.

He said advances in medical technology in the past 50-years has greatly increased the life span of humans. Medical treatment of senior people including treatment of psychiatric disorders has now become an important part of medical science.

“Psychiatric illness can occur at any age but senior people have the highest incidence of mental illness. 20-25% of seniors have one of more psychiatric disorders. These numbers increase as people get older. Such disorders may last a short time but often can become chronic and sometimes are lifelong and require lifelong treatment.”

Even though psychiatric illness is so very widespread in old age, they are the most underdiagnosed, overlooked, undertreated or neglected medical conditions, he maintained.

The reason for this can be many such as poor knowledge about psychiatric illness amongst the common people but often times among healthcare professionals as well, as well as inadequate numbers of well-trained psychiatrists, opined Dr Bhandary.

Ironically historic stigma associated with mental illness. Due to such stigma, many people whose psychiatric disorders are easily treatable do not seek medical help. Due to such reasons, Seniors have the highest incidence of suicide.

Talking about how psychiatric illness can be dangerous , Dr Bhandary said that depression is the second most common medical condition after ischemic heart disease. Suicide is the second most common cause of death amongst children and young adults. Around 40% of all disabilities are caused or aggravated by psychiatric disorders.

While mental illness in the elderly is often overlooked and challenging to diagnose, its effects can greatly diminish a senior’s health and well-being, complicate the treatment of other chronic diseases, and even lead to death, he asserted.

Untreated psychiatric illness can cause early death. In fact, the lifespan of people with psychiatric illness is 10-15 years less than people without psychiatric illness, he remarked.

Reasons for psychiatric illness