PESHAWAR, July 2: Many neurotic patients who recover at the Mental Hospital after getting treatment experience a relapse as their relatives and family members never turn up to take them home, doctors and psychiatrists at the hospital said. Nasreen, 25, a frail patient, was brought to the hospital several times since June, 2004. It has been more than three months since her 60-year-old husband, a resident of Sakha Kote last visited her and she is waiting for him to take her home.

“My husband lured me with gifts and brought me here. He also gave me a little money. I have not seen him since,” Nasreen told Dawn at the female ward of the Mental Hospital housed in an old building next to the Central Prison, Peshawar.

Nasreen, wife of Abdul Karim, said that she was married at the age of 15. Her in-laws and husband used to beat her over small domestic tiffs. Nasreen’s parents are dead and her two married sisters never visited her.

“My husband has left me here and my family doesn’t even enquire about me,” she lamented.

The record at the hospital revealed that its medical superintendent had even once officially requested the SHO of Mardan police station to help in the handing over of Nasreen to her relatives. No one from the family showed up to receive her after repeated requests by the hospital.