More trained psychiatrists needed in UAE

Although mental illnesses are under-treated in the region, the UAE has a great opportunity at present to train enough psychiatrists and mental health professionals for its future needs, leading health care experts said in the capital on Wednesday. They said trained specialists will be crucial in providing assistance for the elderly as the country experiences a rapidly ageing population in the future, while also helping patients deal with diseases that cause chronic pain. "Across the world, there is still a stigma towards psychiatric care. However, major depression and anxiety occur along with many long-term conditions like diabetes and cardiovascular disease, and these can be better treated if patients with psychiatric symptoms can get the required help," Dr Michael R. Clark, associate professor and director of chronic pain treatment programme at the Johns Hopkins Medical Institute, told Gulf News. "In addition, with the world facing an ageing population, attention to mental health is even more important, especially as 50 per cent of people over the age of 85 tend to display some form of dementia [brain disorders leading to loss of mental ability]," he said. Pain-causing diseases The doctor was speaking on the sidelines of the two-day Second International Comprehensive Pain Management Conference, where medical practitioners discussed a spectrum of pain-causing diseases and ways to treat them. Because ageing populations are now prevalent across the world, psychiatric services were a major point of discussion at the forum. Although the UAE currently has a young population, a 2008 US Health Department study on global ageing shows that the age group of people over 65 years is growing fastest among all age groups globally, with 870,000 more people turning 65 every month. "The incidence of diabetes, cancer and cardiovascular disease is also very high in the UAE. Without psychiatric care to help these patients, pain can worsen and eventually interfere with medical treatment, thereby reducing its efficiency," Dr Clark said. The doctor added that the UAE's medical institutions were however not unique in under-diagnosing and under-treating psychiatric disorders. "Hospitals worldwide receive less funding and have fewer staff for psychiatric care because there is comparatively less financial rewards in offering it when compared to surgical or chemical treatments. Moreover, it is often hard to document the outcome of mental health treatment," he said. "The lack of mental health professionals, along with rapidly ageing populations, have already led to a crisis in countries like Japan, and the UAE now has an opportunity to prevent similar problems from arising in the future," Dr Clark said. Elderly numbers rising     870,000 more people worldwide turn 65 every month.     50 per cent of people over the age of 85 have some form of dementia (brain disorders leading to loss of mental ability).     40 per cent of people with chronic pain disorders (such as diabetes and cancer) suffer from major depression.