Even as the stressful modern life triggers a variety of mental conditions requiring increased availability of psychiatrists, India is abysmally short of experts to take care of mental health, a renowned psychiatrist said on Saturday.
“While the requirement of psychiatrists in the country is over 13,000, India has around 5,000 practitioners,” Prof (Brig) MSVK Raju, President-Elect of the Indian Psychiatric Society (IPS), said while addressing a seminar on “Emerging Trends and Future Directions” in psychiatry at the IMS and Sum Hospital here.
The seminar, part of the Continuing Medical Education (CME) programme, was organised by the Odisha State Branch of the IPS.
Prof Raju said around 350 psychiatrists are graduating every year, but the number is too few considering the burgeoning requirement.
Describing psychiatry as a difficult discipline where very little can be measured and the treatment is often made on the basis of inference, he said it is wrong to trivialise this vital discipline.
Dr Satyabrata Dash, President of the Odisha unit of the IPS, said the field of psychiatry is opening up with psychiatrists needed by corporate houses and the IT industry to take care of their workforce.
Quoting a WHO survey report, he said 36 per cent of the Indian population is likely to be victims of depression at some point in their lives.
Among others, Prof Gopal Chandra Kar and Prof Tophan Pati, both eminent psychiatrists of Odisha, Dr Samrat Kar, Secretary of the Odisha unit of the IPS, Prof Gangadhar Sahu, Dr Pushparaj Samantasinhar and Dr Surjeet Sahu addressed the seminar.
Prof OP Singh of the NRS Medical College Hospital, Kolkata, spoke on “Issues in Management of Schizophrenia”.