PESHAWAR: A team from university in the United Kingdom is going to launch a research programme to ascertain the prevalence of psychosis a severe mental disorder condition in which people lose contact with reality in Pakistan and Sri Lanka and recommend measures for early interventions.

`In view of the huge impact of the delayed treatment on young people suffering from psychosis in Pakistan, a team at the Keele University, UK, is starting a research programme, Translate, which stands for translating evidence for early intervention in this mental problem,` pro-gramme head and psychiatrist Prof Saeed Farooq told Dawn.

He noted that 90pc of patients with psychosis lived in low-income countries, including Pakistan, where 1-5pc of the population were thought to experience the condition.

Prof Farooq added that it was particularly important considering that around 65pc of the country`s population was under 30.

He said psychosis treatment would be offered in Peshawar and Abbottabad districts in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Faisalabad in Punjab, Quetta in Balochistan, and Hyderabad in Sindh, and Sri Lanka`s Galle district.

Prof Farooq, who was awarded UK`s Global Health Professorship Award by National Institute of Health and Care Research (NIHR) last month to conduct research on `Translating evidence for early intervention in psychosis (Translate) in low and lowermiddle countries,` said theresearch team would assess in a one-year period whether those services could improve the health of around 650 patients experiencing psychosis across those sites.

He said psychosis patients lost some contact with reality and interpreted reality in a very different way from others around them.

`This condition involves seeing or hearing things that others cannot see or hear [hallucinations] and believing things that are not actually true [delusions],` he said.

The psychiatrist said psychosis might involve confused thinking and speaking.

He added that those symptoms often caused severe distress and changes in behaviour.

`Psychosis affects around 21 million people around the world, most of whom do not receive appropriate care,` he said.

Prof Farooq said younger people were at the highest risk of experiencing psychosis, as it usually occurred when a per-son was in their late teens or early twenties.

He said in high-income countries such as the UK, there were services for treating psychosis early.

The programme head, however, said Pakistan had a few clinics for the diagnosis and treatment of psychosis.

`This means that there is a large gap between somebody experiencing a first symptom of psychosis and receiving appropriate treatment. On average, this gap is around two years in lower-income countries like Pakistan.

This often results in poor outcomes for the patient, including more severe symptoms, worse quality of life, and lower levels of recovery from psychosis,` he said.

Prof Farooq said the Translate team held meetings with health workers, patients and other stakeholders to understand the needs of the local communities when treating people with psychosis.

He added that the team wascurrently working on making existing guidance for managing psychosis from high-income countries suitable for use in Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

`Our programme will help develop the careers of many clinicians working in healthcare services. They will be trained on how to follow guidance to manage and treat psychosis. In turn, this training can be passed on to other mental health clinicians and healthcare workers in other settings. The programme will also support the research careers of PhD students in Pakistan,` he said.

Prof Farooq said the initiative was expected to have a large impact on psychosis care in Pakistan and Sri Lanka and improve outcomes for people suffering from psychosis in low-income countries.

He said the Translate programme would be extended to other South Asian countries to provide treatment for psychosis in the places where it was currently lacking.