18 September 2004	Saturday	02 Shaban 1425

LAHORE, Sept 17: World Psychiatric Association president Prof Ahmad Okasha has called for an end to violence taking place in different parts of the world to check the increasing psychological problems.

He was speaking at the inaugural session of WPA's four-day regional and inter-zonal conference on "Improving mental health in developing countries" in a local hotel on Friday. He observed that violence begets violence.

Prof Okasha said Islam was unfortunately misinterpreted and even abused in different parts of the world. He said Islam meant pure peace and listening to and tolerating others.

He observed that the topic covered almost two thirds of mental patients world wide. He said the WPA recognised a number of constraints to developing a mental health programme in the developing countries.

These constraints included lack of awareness about magnitude of the problem, lack of reliable information, insufficient human and financial resources, absence of specialists, constant brain drain and widespread civil strife and violence.

Prof Okasha, however, added that in spite of lack of treatment facilities, there was no scientific evidence that mental health of people in developing countries was deteriorating faster than that of people of developed countries.