ISLAMABAD: Women and men between the ages of 20 to 30 years in Pakistan are most affected by some form of mental illness.

This has been highlighted in a report of the World Health Organisation (WHO).

SehatYab, an online mental health service quoting the report, highlighted that 15pc of Pakistan’s population (25 million people) were living with a mental health condition. However, there were only between 500-600 psychiatrists available to provide treatment.

The psychiatrist - patient ratio was amongst the lowest even when compared to developing countries, the report stated, adding that, “four out of five patients suffering from mental health issues do not seek treatment”. “That is a huge number and arises primarily due to lack of awareness as symptoms were believed to be signs of poor faith. Among other reasons was depression, which was under-played with being lazy and anxiety with being fussy,” it added.

Says 15pc of the country’s population suffers from a condition

Sometimes, people with certain conditions are labelled as being possessed by a supernatural entity, it stated, adding that it was this lack of awareness that SehatYab’s management wanted to tackle.

A symptoms-based self-assessment questionnaire was developed (on guidelines developed by Mental Health America) in easy Urdu. The questionnaire was promoted through social media for free and the respondents got a result which suggested whether they need a psychiatrist, psychologist or self-care besides indications of anxiety and/or depression.

During the period, February 2022 to May 2022, the online self-assessment survey was launched. Its aim was to firstly, create mental health awareness and secondly, to generate objective data regarding symptoms of mental health issues among people.

The survey was advertised through social media and was shown to audiences who had a digital footprint of browsing mental health topics and 7,087 people had completed the survey, amongst them 67pc male and 33pc female.

A total of 19 questions representing the most common mental health symptoms were included in it. The top five symptoms compiled were anxiety relating to the fear of the future which was most widespread among the Pakistani population.

Young adults between the ages of 20-30 years came out to be the most vulnerable with women scoring higher than men in most symptoms assessed. Women were particularly more likely to experience emotional symptoms. Severity and incidence of symptoms decreased with advancing age, the survey pointed out.

SehatYab, which was serving since 2016 through online consultations by psychiatrists and psychologists pointed out that it was clear that these symptoms identified with depressive and anxious states in the population.

“A breakdown of the data reveals that women are on the higher side than men by at least 10pc to 25pc, across most symptoms experienced. While it is normal for women to be more expressive emotionally, however, this is clearly a trend,” the survey said.

Published in Dawn, November 19th, 2022