ICMR plans national registry to document psychiatric illnesses

Following the passage of the Mental Healthcare Bill, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) is now planning a national registry of serious psychiatric problems.

“There’s a need for a registry of serious psychiatric problems seen in psychiatry departments of various hospitals. A registry will ensure international comparisons and facilitate cohort development,” said Dr Soumya Swaminathan, director-general of ICMR and Secretary, Department of Health Research (DHR), Union Health Ministry.

“Maternal depression and prevention of suicide will be our primary focus. We will ensure that MD and DNB students begin collecting data on high priority. This will help accumulate large scale national data. The plan will be discussed in detail with the ICMR national board soon,” she said.

India has only 43 government-run mental hospitals and about 3,500 psychiatrists for a population of 1.2 billion.

“There is a need to introduce evidence-based preventive and management strategies to take care of the rising number of people with mental health problems,” said Dr Swaminathan.

ICMR’s mental health programme proposes the development of a national mental health research institute The country’s apex medical research body also plans to develop a software for data archiving at the point of contact level and at registries.

WHY EVERY STEP COUNTS

• According to estimates by THE National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), India has more than
   
• 7 cr people with mental health problems.
   
• The average suicide rate in India is 10.9 every lakh people.