KARACHI, Nov 15: Urgent need for state support for timely and proper diagnosis of wide range of ailments often manifested through depression is largely felt.

In a session organised by Psychiatry Department, Hamdard Medical University, psychiatrists and physicians stressed a sympathetic consideration on part of all health care providers including specialists towards such patients wrongly or rightly categorised as suffering from psychological ailment.

The healthcare providers present on the occasion acknowledged that often organic causes of mental ailments were overlooked and patients were made to suffer without intervention he or she might actually be needing.

It was suggested that proper diagnostic facilities be made available to patients.

Dr Amanat Mohsin, Dr Amin Gadet and senior physicians Dr Aziz Khan Tank and Dr Haseeb Alam called for close coordination between general practitioners and psychiatrists.

It was observed with great concern that the inability of a considerably large number of local physicians to diagnose the actual ailment often led to the bracketing of such patients as psychotic.

These patients, it was said, were not referred to qualified psychiatrists and were often put on psychotropic drugs by general practitioners themselves who, with little training in the field, had almost no idea about the side-effects of many such medicines. Many of such cases were ultimately found to have other factors including tumours as the root-cause for abnormal behaviour.

It was observed that in many instances patients and their relatives were provided no information about the actual health status (both mental and physical or either of the two) of the patients by concerned psychiatrists.

It was recommended that it should be made mandatory for all doctors to undergo refresher courses.—APP