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Psychoses is a group of psychiatric disorders affecting
about 0.5% of the population at any given point of time. These disorders
result in severe long-term disability in the affected individuals and
enormous socio-occupational burden on the families and society, if left
untreated. It is unfortunate that despite the availability of simple,
effective treatment, more than two third patients of psychoses do not receive
treatment because of ignorance, stigma and non-availability of mental health
care services.
Experts at a
WHO/SEARO meeting at Bangkok
in November 2001 recommended that the local health care providers be trained
to diagnose psychoses with the help of a simple questionnaire and manage
these patients with the help of simple management manual after training.
Based on these recommendations, WHO SEARO with the help of its consultants in
the field of mental health and community medicine is developing a
questionnaire titled “Psychoses Identification Questionnaire” (PIQ) and a
Psychoses Management Manual for management of patients of psychoses at
community level.
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