PESHAWAR: Speakers at a symposium have stressed the need for management of the patients, who are exposed to mental disorders due toother diseases.

`We should pay attention to all the patients, who face psychiatric problems due to other diseases, like cancer, hepatitis and diabetes etc,` Prof Sayed Mohammad Sultan, head of the psychiatry department at Khyber Teaching Hospital, told the concluding session of the two-day national symposium at Khyber Medical College here on Sunday.

The symposium entitled `Interface between psychiatry and other specialties`, was organised by Pakistan Psychiatric Society (PPS) to establish links among psychiatrists and other specialists and ensure better treatment of the patients in the province.

Dr Sultan, also president of PPS, said that psychiatric ailments affected people worldwide due to different factors but Pakistanis were more vulnerable to such diseases because of the endless series of terrorism.

`The situation has been complicated by shortage of psychiatrists because the country with 180 million population has only 400 specialists for mental illnesses whereas Royal College UK recommends one psychiatrist for every 10,000 people,` he said.

Dr Sultan said that majority of the psychiatrists were working in urban centres owing to which the rural population suffered. `The other stumbling block in coping with the bur-den of diseases is that the people don`t recognise psychiatry ailments as a problem,` he said.

The expert said that even if some people recognised psychiatry sicknesses, majority of them employed traditional ways of seeking help of traditional healers instead of looking for scientific methods that caused harm to the people than benefit. In that situation, the patients and their relatives underwent through agonies and pain, he said.

`Our country lacks resources to deal with the problem of mental disorders, therefore, the only option before us is to scale up public awareness about psychiatric diseases,` said Dr Sultan.

Speaking on the occasion, psychiatrist Mian Iftikhar Hussain urged complete liaison among all the specialists to be able to diagnose the mental ailments and help the patients.

The government should incorporate chapters about mental illnesses in the course of medical colleges so the medical graduates could know about the signs and symptoms and the patients were diagnosed and cured promptly, he added.

The patients also required psychological and social support for rapid recovery for which the country needed training of doctors, nurses and paramedics to help in identifying those ailments at the initial stage and ensuringbettercare,he said.

Increasing poverty, illiteracy, exploitationof poor segments of the society coupled with intolerance, injustices, massive urbanisation, unemployment, violence and population explosion are some of the factors contributing to increase in mental illnesses.

Prof Noorul Iman, Prof Abid Jameel, Dr Bashir Ahmed, Prof Nadeem Khawar, Dr Nadeem, Dr Zahid Nazar, Prof Khalid Mufti, Dr Shujat Ali Khan, Dr Mian Mukhtarul Haq Azeemi, Dr Mohammad Idrees, Prof Raza Rehman, Dr Ayesha Minhas, Prof Majid Abidi, Prof Hashimud Din, Prof Mohammad Hamayun, Prof Iqbal Afridi, Prof Mowdat H Rana, Prof Saeed Farooq, Prof Fareed Rehman, Prof Mumtaz Ali, Prof Sardar Alam, Prof Migdad Ali Khan, Dr Wajid Ali Akhunzada, Dr Ghulam Rasool and Dr Azizur Rehman also spoke on the occasion.

They said that all specialists should join forces to diagnose psychiatric ailments promptly and provide early treatment to the patients. The people suffering from cancer and other fatal illness pass through hard times due to which they also develop mental disorders.

Alongside treatment of physical illnesses, the doctors should take care of their psychiatric problems to ensure their early treatment, the speakers said.

They said that women and children needed special attention. `While undergoing treatment for other diseases, women and children can be safeguarded against mental disorders,` they added. Ash faq Yusufzai