2nd cognitive behavioural therapy conference: Psychiatric training centre to open in four months

Shortage of qualified personnel in making it harder to fight depression.

KARACHI: In about four months, an Institute of Cognitive Behaviour Therapy and Research Centre is slated to open in Karachi. It will offer diploma courses in psychiatry.

This announcement was made by consultant clinical psychiatrist Dr Sofia Saeed at the second cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) conference at PNS Shifa on Sunday.

“The diploma will be issued after a year-long course which is [being offered] in collaboration with the University of Manchester, Durham University and the University of Southhampton,” Saeed said during her presentation.

The centre will be located on Abul Hasan Ispahani Road behind the University of Karachi.

The pre-requisite for the post-graduate diploma course is a Bachelor’s of Science in Psychology. About 200 people have already enrolled for the online course between the Pakistan Association of Cognitive Therapists and the Oxford Cognitive Therapy Centre, Saeed told The Express Tribune. The Oxford course fee is £600 but this local affiliate will be offering the year-long course for Rs20,000.

Saeed’s announcement at the conference comes at a time when Pakistan is struggling with a shortage of qualified personnel in this field. According to a 2007 report in The Lancet, there are only 250 psychiatrists for a large population of 160 million, but less than half of them have proper postgraduate qualifications in psychiatry.

It is small wonder then that like an undetected virus, depression has snaked its way into the lives of Pakistanis, plaguing and damaging society without being detected. It is unnoticed and undocumented mostly because of the social stigma – something that speakers brought up with concern during the conference.

The head of the department of psychiatry at Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, Prof. Iqbal Afridi, shared his experience during a survey in Gilgit. “Some women were so unaware that they had no idea what depression was or that they exhibited symptoms of the condition,” he said. “We asked them, do you often feel so lost and upset that you want to cry for no reason? A majority of them said yes.” The reason for depression spreading as such, he said, was because doctors usually do not look beyond physical symptoms of an illness and are not bothered with the mental well-being of a person.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 19^th, 2011.