Dr Suvendu Narayan Mishra, working in the department of Psychiatry at the SUM Hospital in Bhubaneswar, in an interview to Orissa POST tries to bust the myths relating to mental health and also explained issues touching mental well being. Excerpts:
What are the different types of mental health issues affecting human beings?
There are two forms of mental health issues. One is psychosis, which refers to hardcore features like schizophrenia, bipolar disorders, delusion or hallucinations and odd behavior. Problems of these patients are more complex but they tend to complain less to the doctors. Another is neurosis, wherein people complain more but their mental conditions are often not much severe. It includes disorders like anxiety, phobias and others.
What are the most common cases of mental disorders you encounter in your hospital?
The most common diseases that we are now encountering are adjustment diseases. Many cases of depression and drug addictions are coming to us frequently. Anxiety disorders and different types of phobias are also common among many people who come to us. Many also come to us wherein patients wrongly diagnose their diseases by searching on the internet which many a times trigger anxiety among themselves. Cases of break-ups and relationship issues are also common now.
Do you think the government has been able to provide access to mental healthcare in rural Odisha?
We are now having District Mental Health Programmes where the district hospitals are connected with the central hospitals in the state like hospitals in Cuttack and Bhubaneswar. Now doctors are reaching out to rural areas and identifying people having mental health issues. We are also working towards creating awareness and advise them to not go to the quacks.
Can drug addiction be tackled through the help of psychiatrists?
We usually deal with addiction as many of the addicts are prone to behavioural issues which we try to fix with the best of our knowledge. There could be anxiety, sleeplessness, irritation and suspiciousness. For the medical part they need the intervention of psychiatrists but for the counselling part they can refer to psychologists.
To what extent the mental issues could be fully cured?
If a person comes to doctors during initial phases of his/her mental illness, he/she could be fully cured. A large number of mental disorders are being controlled or cured by using medicines.