3 April, 2005	Sunday	23 Safar 1426

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PESHAWAR, April 2: Speakers at a one-day workshop held here on Saturday expressed concern over the increasing incidents of depression, and asked the people to change their lifestyle according to the changing circumstances.

“Poverty, joblessness, act of terrorism and other social problems are causes of depression among the people of all ages,” said psychiatrist Dr Mohammad Shafiq while addressing

the workshop entitled ‘bipolar disorder’, organized by the Health Promotion Society (HPS).

He said the doctors were required to take into account the socio-economic conditions of the patients while prescribing treatment to the people suffering from depression. An endless cycle of poverty prevailing in society was affecting the people badly, he said.

Dr Shafiq said the people also resorted to self-medication to seek a few moments of leisure and entertainment in the trying times, causing them irreparable loss.

It was the duty of the doctors to record complete history of the patients and prescribe treatment in line with their basic problems, he added.

He also asked the parents to bring up their children in a way that could instil a sense of confidence and boldness in them.

However, it was also incumbent upon the government to impart the much-needed training to the general physicians in dealing with the cases of depression, he stressed.

It is all the more important to train the doctors because of the shortage of psychiatrists in the country, he said.

Psychiatrist Dr Fawad Khan urged the need for more entertainment activities in the country for the children, youth and grownup people to put brakes on the raising number of psychiatric patients.

Unwarranted restrictions on the children, he pointed out, deteriorated their mental condition and the parents were needed to provide an atmosphere to their children in which they could be developed into mature people.

HPS Executive Director Dr Mian Iftikhar Hussain, however, said his Society had been organizing camps at the grassroots level to tackle the problem.

Free psychiatric camps were being held on every Sunday in different localities where the experts imparted medical education to the people to raise the level of their awareness about the problem, he added.

Dr Mian Mukhtarul Haq of the Government Sarhad Psychiatric Hospital said the patients with mental disorder needed the attention of the doctors as well as their family’s support.

Many people, he said, did not give attention to such patients, which exacerbated their condition and as a result they became a burden on their families as well as society.

The former principal of the Khyber Medical College, Dr Khalid Attaulah Mufti, said depression had reached to an alarming proportion among the Afghan refugees due to over a quarter of century war in their country.