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World Schizophrenia Day.

Almost half the patients who pay a visit to Psychiatry OPD are of Schizophrenia. They all bring a unique, sad, unsettling and often heart wrenching story of their own to me. All these stories are stashed in the minds of us psychiatrists, forever lingering in bits and pieces. 

I wish all these stories of unspeakable pain could linger in the minds of policy makers and politicians for once; so that the sapling of empathy could grow more in them towards mental health patients. 

A young girl with Schizophrenia  struggles to study, fails exams and her parents hide her diagnosis and force her to marry and then she can’t cope up with the work pressure at in-laws and the auditory hallucinations and fear of impending death flares out of proportion leading to her being sacked out of house or being abused and treated like an object of null significance, albeit a burden. 

A young boy with schizophrenia, falls back in performance in sports and studies, falls prey to addictive substances like alcohol and ganja, has paranoid delusions and hallucinations, with rare instances of anger outbursts, parents lock him inside house, don’t allow him to go out, he stays unmarried, alone, unemployed with a fear of nobody to care for him when his parents get old and die. 

And old man with schizophrenia, can’t walk, not employed. No kids. His wife, herself old too, still works to earn money to pay for his expensive mental health medicines. She also has Diabetes, back pain or hypertension. 

These are just a few case templates that I witness everyday. But not all is grim for Schizophrenia patients. A large chunk of this population gets better with medicines and an even safer mode i.e. Electroconvulsive therapy. They go back to living/enjoying their lives independently, and also earning enough to support themselves and their families! 

On this eve of WORLD SCHIZOPHRENIA DAY, let’s assume the duty of shedding some light on the issues that these patients face. 

1. The insurance companies don’t cover Schizophrenia under their purview. So these patients face the burden of medical expenses incessantly.
2. The medicines of Schizophrenia are costly, and the unemployment of its patients adds fuel to the fire. 
3. The number of Psychiatrists in the country is too small to cater quality care to this large section of patients.  The current ones are punching more than they can lift. 
4. The awareness regarding this disorder is dismal in the peripheral parts. Hence, the patients first visit a faith healer and only ends up at hospital after a long period of untreated psychosis which becomes resistant to medications. 
5. The care giver burden for this disorder is one of the biggest and our government has made minimal provision to take care of them to reduce their stress and prevent them from developing Mental Health Disorder. 
6. The medical fraternity itself has a taboo towards Schizophrenia. I hardly see a non mental health professional doctor promoting mental health. Just as a Psychiatrist asks hypertensive patient to eat less salt, do other field doctors do the similar for Schizophrenia patients? Support from outside will occur when support from within emerges.

    

Schizophrenia patients can have a significant value addition to the society if they are taken care for and nurtured with apt and adequate care and motivation. The question remains the same… Will the society as a whole take up this job of being empathic, patient and supportive to this part of the society they live and breathe with? 

Or will we give in to the armada of incident new cases of Schizophrenia in the post covid era???