Inflation to hit mental health as much as wallets, say experts

Mental health experts say that the government has excessively burdened the country's population by imposing extraordinary taxes on income and various essential goods and utility bills, due to which people, especially women, are encountering severe mental anguish and anxiety.

Speaking at a press conference on the occasion of World Mental Health Day at the Karachi Press Club on Thursday, President NORF and Pakistan's renowned neurologist Prof. Dr. Muhammad Wasay, Chairman of Pakistan Parkinson Society Dr. Nadir Ali Syed and Member Central Committee of Pakistan Society of Neurology Prof. Dr. Abdul Malik expressed great concern over the backbreaking inflation that has hit the common person and its potentially adverse effects on mental health in Pakistan.

Addressing the conference and talking to The Express Tribune, the mental health experts said that inflation in the country had reached its highest level, due to which the citizens are portraying signs of extreme irritability and intolerance.

The experts said that already 10 per cent of the population in the country is suffering from various mental diseases, and their incidence was dramatically increasing.

Professor Wasay said that even medicines are becoming increasingly out of reach for the common man.

Professor Dr. Abdul Malik said that mental diseases are the number one cause of bodily ailments.

He said that the prices of medicines have increased by 30 to 40 per cent due to the increase in the dollar exchange rate. A large number of patients have already stopped taking medication for their diseases.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 22^nd, 2022.