M F AHMAD
Daltonganj, Feb 19: The Zila Mansik Swasthya Kendra in Daltonganj has been registering an increase in the number of anxiety and depression cases, according to the psychiatrist, Dr. Ashish Kumar.
This Kendra is located on the campus of Medinirai Medical College and Hospital (MMCH) Daltonganj.
According to Dr. Ashish, people in the age group of 15 to 40 are more prone or afflicted with anxiety and depression. There are cases of Covid phobia, panic attack, delusion, hallucination and happy anxiety too. He finds many cases of people of tender age suffering from heartbreak or crashes in love affairs.
About happy anxiety, he said that a patient has no symptoms or discomfort at all, nevertheless, the patient apprehends contracting mental illness.
According to Dr. Ashish, cases of dissociative disorder are related to lack of education. He added that dissociative disorder is less where there is a high rate of literacy in comparison to the region having low-level of literacy.
“Kerala has a lesser number of dissociative disorder cases simply because of the high percentage of the literacy there,” said Ashish.
One or two cases are reported every month in the Zila Mansik Swasthya Kendra here when a patient or two goes berserk and sprints at harming the psychiatrist or any other medical staff.
He clarified this is no case of any patient going violent with the doctor at all. Such a situation is due to the mental illness of the person concerned who deserves care, attention and treatment.
Around 1,400 patients come every month to this mental treatment hub.
Dr. Ashish further said that the post-Covid inflow of the patients has gone up. There are cases where a near cured patient again lines up as his mental illness or disorder has relapsed.
“We treat cases arising out of the stoppage of using alcohol as withdrawal symptoms grip its users. Similar is the case with the nicotine addiction withdrawal symptoms,” he said.
Overuse of the steroid during the peak wave of the Coronavirus has triggered bipolar disorder cases here. Bipolar disorder is a mood swing.
The psychiatrist said that awareness about mental illness is needed. It gets less space even in media unlike TB, Coronavirus and other illnesses.
Palamu Civil Surgeon Dr. Anil Kumar said, “We want a holistic approach to health which is both physical and mental both. Our mental care health hub is doing fine but there is always room for betterment.”
Dr. Ashish said that reporting of suicidal death by media is done not in conformity to what the WHO has set its dos and don’ts.
Like all other government workplaces where there is a human crunch, the mental illness treatment centre is no exception.
Ashish said there is a directive to train every health worker and official at the peripheral units about noticing the first onset of mental illness.
He also appealed to the patients not to discontinue their medicines without consulting their doctors.
“Schizophrenia cases are long-term treatment and patience and time both are essential for it,” he said.
