PESHAWAR, June 9: A psychiatrist on Monday blamed social injustices, poverty, unemployment, political instability and increasing use of drugs for the rise in mental ailments, including depression and stress.

This was stated by Dr Bashir Ahmad while delivering a lecture on prevalent psychiatric diseases among the people, specially journalists at the Peshawar Press Club. Dr Ahmed is the president of the NWFP chapter of the Pakistan Psychiatric Society.

According to statistics presented by him, 14 per cent or 23 million people of the country’s total population suffered from psychiatric problems.

Citing figures from the World Bank’s report titled Global Burden of Diseases, issued in 1990, he said globally, there were five mental diseases common in patients as well as their families and communities as a whole.

Depression, he said ranked third on the list of the World Bank report, adding that researchers feared that the mental illness could top the list if adequate efforts were not initiated to overcome its causative agents.

He said that the government had so far made very little or no effort to control mental ailments.

Criticizing the government for lack of adequate mechanism to contain mental diseases, he said the ratio of mental disorders had recorded an alarming increase.

He said that after efforts of prominent psychiatrists, the government was now considering to include mental illnesses in the national health policy.

Dr Bashir, on the occasion, also highlighted various psychiatric problems prevalent in the journalist community.

He said that by virtue of their job description, journalists perform a highly stressful job.

Journalists, he said, routinely visited sites of accident, robberies, police raids, suicides, homicides, and terrorist incidents, which ultimately induced anxiety and depression, adding that reporters covering sites of natural calamities like earthquakes and floods were more at risk.

Similarly, lengthy and non-routine duty-hours, excessive travelling, and the tendency to lead an almost reclusive life with little time for friends and family members led to their social isolation increasing the risk of mental illnesses.