KARACHI, Sept 29: The prevalence of socio-economic related clinical depression is as high as 44 per cent in Pakistan with 55 per cent of these patients being women, according to the President of the Pakistan Association for Mental Health (PAMH), Prof S Haroon Ahmed.

Briefing journalists at his clinic on Thursday in connection with the Mental Health Day, he said the incidence of obsessive-compulsive disorder had increased from 0.1 to three per cent during the last 20 years.

He deplored that there were only 3,000 psychiatric beds in Pakistan in public sector hospitals and about 2,000 beds in private sector ones. Whereas the number of psychiatrists in the country were not more than 350 and these were mainly based in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad.

He said the PAMH would be observing “Mental Health Week” from Oct 2-10 in accordance with the World Mental Health Day 2005 with the theme “Mental and Physical health Across the Life Span.”

The main objective of the World Mental Health Day 2005 was to remind everyone that the total health of every individual at every stage of life was the framework on which successful and fulfilling lives were built, he said.