PESHAWAR, Oct 9: Lack of treatment facilities in the NWFP is causing problems for patients suffering from mental disorders, doctors told Dawn.

“About 14 per cent of the country’s total population suffers from one kind of mental disorder or another, but treatment facilities are nearly non-existent,” said a psychiatrist.

Citing figures from the World Bank’s report titled “Global burden of diseases” published in 1990 he said, all over the world  five mental diseases were common in patients.

Depression, he said, ranked third in the World Bank’s report, adding that researchers feared that mental illnesses could top the list of general ailments if adequate efforts were not initiated to overcome their causative agents.

According to him, only three districts - Mardan, Swat and Dera Ismail Khan - in the NWFP had services of qualified psychiatrists. In contrast, every district of the province had services of cardiologists, dermatologists, physicians and surgeons, whereas psychiatric patients, except those in the three districts, had to visit city hospitals for treatment, he said.

At present only four psychiatrists are working at city hospitals: one at the Lady Reading Hospital; two at the Khyber Teaching Hospital; one at the Hayatabad Medical Complex and one at the Government Mental Hospital.

The Government Mental Hospital, since it inception in 1854, has been offering treatment to patients from all across the province, besides catering to medical needs of a large number of Afghan refugees.

According to statistics provided to Dawn, the number of mentally ill people is increasing. About 20,000 patients visited the hospital in 1997, 25,000 in 1998, 28,000 in 1999, 30,000 in 2001 and 33,000 in 2002.

The hospital’s financial position began to deteriorate five years ago when the budget for medicines was slashed from Rs4.2 million to Rs2 million. This reduction affected services provided to 98 per cent patients who come from poor families and to whom the hospital is supposed to provide free of cost medicines and other facilities.

Patients are also entitled to get food and clothing, but the hospital now lacks the facilities.