Treatment of mental disorders in India

1. Mental health gets a low priority all over the world but much more so in developing countries. 2. In India, modern psychiatric facilities are available only in the cities. Mental hospitals are becoming modernized but the backbone of psychiatry is the psychiatric department in the General Hospital where treatment is out-patient and family based except short admissions for crisis intervention. 3. Psychotropic drugs are preferred both by psychiatrists and patients, next being electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) and other physical treatments followed by psychotherapies. 4. In view of paucity of facilities, 80% of the population has to depend on indigenous treatments consisting of Ayurvedic and Unani systems of medicine, religious treatments consisting of prayers, fasting, etc. and various witchcraft and magical rituals.