Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-8ctnn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T05:48:04.836Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Mental Health in an Indian Rural Community

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

M. N. Elnagar ,
Promila Maitra  and
M. N. Rao
M. N. Elnagar
Affiliation:
Department of Tropical Health, High Institute of Public Health, Alexandria, on WHO Fellowship at the All-India Institute of Hygiene and Public Health, 110 Chittaranjan Avenue, Calcutta-12, India
Promila Maitra
Affiliation:
All-India Institute of Hygiene and Public Health, Calcutta
M. N. Rao
Affiliation:
All-India Institute of Hygiene and Public Health, Calcutta
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The difficulties of organizing mental health services in developing countries are made all the greater by inadequacy of information about the extent of illness and disability. Some beginnings have been made in India, particularly under the sponsorship of the All India Institute of Mental Health, Bangalore. The Mental Health Advisory Committee of the Government of India (1966) suggested a probable prevalence of mental illness of 20 per 1,000 population in general, 18 per mille for semi-rural and 14 per mille for rural areas. These figures are much lower than the 72 per 1,000 suggested by Sethi et al. (1967). Ganguli (1968) estimated a prevalence rate of 140 per 1,000 in industrial workers near Delhi. Incidence rates have been much less studied than prevalences (Lin and Standley, 1962). A WHO Expert Committee on mental health convened in 1960 suggested as a working definition of a case of mental illness:

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 118 , Issue 546 , May 1971 , pp. 499 - 503
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1971 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Census Hand Book, Hooghly District (1961). Govt. of West Bengal publication.Google Scholar
Davis, R. B., and Rao, M. N. (1969). ‘Diagnosis and its relation to culture in 5,000 consecutive psychiatric in-patient admissions in India.’ (Under publication.)Google Scholar
Dube, K. G. (1964). ‘Survey of mental morbidity in India at the mental hospital, Agra.’ Indian J. Psychiat., 6, 98.Google Scholar
Dutta, , Roy, S. (1962). ‘Social stratification of mental patients.’ Indian J. Psychiat., 4, 3.Google Scholar
Ganguli, H. C. (1968). ‘Prevalence of psychological disturbances in an Indian industrial population.’ Indian J. med. Res., 56, 754.Google Scholar
Hollingshead, A. B., and Redlich, F. G. (1958). Social Class and Mental Illness. New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc.Google Scholar
Lin, T., and Standley, C. C. (1962). ‘The scope of epidemiology in psychiatry.’ Geneva, World Health Organization, Public Health Paper no. 16, 18.Google Scholar
Mitra, A. (1953). Tribes and Castes of West Bengal. Calcutta: Land and Land Revenue Publications.Google Scholar
O'Malley, L. S. S., and Chakravarty, M. (1912). Bengal District Gazetteer, Hooghly. Calcutta: The Bengal Secretariat Book Depot.Google Scholar
Porter, A. G. (1933). Census of India 1931, Vol. V, Bengal and Sikkim. Part I. Calcutta, Central Publication Branch.Google Scholar
Ramachandran, P. (1968). ‘Social work education—some data—many doubts.’ Indian J. soc. Work, 29, 241.Google Scholar
Rao, S. (1966). ‘Caste and mental disorders in Bihar.’ Amer. J. Psychiat, 122, 1045.Google Scholar
Reid, D. D. (1960). ‘Epidemiological methods in the study of mental disorders.’ Geneva, World Health Organization, Public Health Paper no. 2, 1960.Google Scholar
Report, Mental Health Advisory Committee (1966). Ministry of Health, Govt. of India.Google Scholar
Risley, H. H. (1891). Tribes and Castes of Bengal. Calcutta: Bengal Secretariat Press.Google Scholar
Sethi, B. B., Gupta, S. C., and Raj, , Kumar, (1967). ‘300 urban families—a psychiatric study.’ Indian J. Psychiat., 9, 280.Google Scholar
World Health Organization, Expert Committee on Mental Health, Geneva, 1960.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.