Date:11/02/2005 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2005/02/11/stories/2005021116410300.htm

Karnataka - Bangalore

Meet on psychiatry begins

By Our Staff Reporter

BANGALORE, FEB. 10. The International Congress on Psychiatry organised by the Department of Psychiatry at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS) commenced here on Thursday.

Experts in the field from various parts of the country and abroad deliberated on topics such as anxiety disorders, schizophrenia, depression and its outcome, psychiatric effects of metabolic changes and so on.

On Friday, sessions on `Feeling good: the science of well-being,' `Tsunami disaster and mental health' and other topics will be held.

The three-day event includes deliberations on various aspects of psychiatry, including history, neurobiology, epidemiology, service delivery, training, policy, impact of genomics and molecular biology on psychiatry, cultural issues etc.

The World Health Organisation has listed several neuro-psychiatric disorders among major health problems. In India, about 10 per cent of the population may have some form of mental illness and around two per cent have serious mental illness.

The Psychiatric Department is the oldest and largest department at NIMHANS and provides care to more than 400 patients in the wards and more than 1,50,000 in the out-patient departments every year.