PESHAWAR: The health experts here on Tuesday said that 34 per cent people in the country were suffering from anxiety and depression.

They were addressing a seminar titled ‘Young people and mental health in a changing world’. They urged the government to take pragmatic measures to control growing number of patients with different mental disorders.

The seminar was held in connection with World Mental Health Day.

Experts say 34pc people in country suffer from anxiety and depression

Speaking on the occasion, Prof Syed Mohammad Sultan, the chairman of department of psychiatry at Khyber Medical College, said that mental disorders varied in different areas. If immediate steps were not taken for control, then such health issues might grow up to 70 per cent, he added.

He said that prevalence of anxiety and mental depression was up to 34 per cent among people.

He added that the treatment gap for psychiatry condition in developed world had been reported about 50 per cent while the figure had reached to startling 90 per cent in under-developed countries including Pakistan.

Dr Sultan said that Royal College of Psychiatrists London had recommended one psychiatrist for 10, 000 people while in Pakistan there was only one psychiatrist for 0.5 million people.

“Keeping in view the gravity of the mental health problems and the shortage of doctors and mental health resources, we would require more doctors to reduce prevalence of multiple mental diseases and number of patients in the country,” said Dr Sultan.

He said that about 55million people were suffering from mental disorders in the country. He said that the mental depression in Chitral, especially among women, had reached up to 46 per cent that resulted in suicides.

“Children are the architects of our future but they are suffering from various psychiatric disorders. We need to develop children psychiatric services in tertiary teaching hospitals and Fountain Hospital in Hayatabad,” said Dr Sultan.

Dr Aziz on the occasion talked about the prevalence and growing mental health problems in the country and sought provision of better mental health facilities.

Dr Aqeela and Dr Hana said that mental disorders of different kinds were fast growing and needed immediate attention of the government.

Published in Dawn, October 10th, 2018