Deadly superstitions

Poverty is a major stressor, and with poverty and food insecurity on the rise, we may expect further tragedies.


Editorial November 14, 2013
The woman who killed her own children is not alone, neither is it uncommon for people to commit violent acts, including murder, during an episode of illness. PHOTO: FILE

The tragic deaths of three children in Lahore, who all drowned when they were thrown into the BRB Canal by their mother, highlights the prevalence of superstitious beliefs and ignorance of mental illness, its diagnosis and treatment. Relatives of the woman who the police quickly arrested, said that she was possessed by demons and had a history of mental ill health stretching back years. Her father reportedly said that it was the influence of the demons that made her kill her own children. He also said that she had been referred to a local psychiatric hospital and had been receiving medication, despite which a doctor had recently declared her ‘stable’. Belief in daemonic possession is anecdotally common in rural areas and not unknown in the cities. Indeed, such beliefs and practices are not confined to the illiterate and ill educated; they can be found at every stratum of society.

Pakistan is suffering a chronic and largely untreated high incidence of mental ill health. Prevalence studies for common mental disorders indicate that 25-66 per cent of women and 10-40 per cent of men out of a population of around 190 million experience mental disorder at some time in their lives. Mental health services are pitiably poor, almost non-existent in rural areas. There are less than 500 qualified psychiatrists in the whole country. Most psychiatrists practise in the cities, whereas a majority of the population lives in rural areas. Practising physicians may have had no psychiatric training at medical college and have poor diagnostic skills and few treatment options. Funding for mental health services is a tiny portion of wider health budgets and there are no public awareness programmes. The woman who killed her own children is not alone, neither is it uncommon for people to commit violent acts, including murder, during an episode of illness. Poverty is a major stressor, and with poverty and food insecurity on the rise, we may expect further tragedies.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 15th, 2013.

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COMMENTS (4)

Stranger | 10 years ago | Reply

Its a common problem in the subcontinent. Education is the key to many a solution.

ayza abid | 10 years ago | Reply

The article aptly pinpoints the malaise in Pakistani society-the inability to realise that just as the body can fall sick so can the mind. Severe lack of education and failure to accept responsibility for one's own action makes it easier to blame demons and divine powers. However, your article needs to include the phrase psychological interventions, psycho education, etc and acknowledge that there is a whole body of psychologists being trained in the country who are yet to be accepted. All mental health problems are not under sole purview of psychiatrists. This is a team work task and the sooner we have a national mental health policy incorporating the two professionals the sooner this nation can develop a system of identification, asseasment, referral and intervention starting from schools, work places and disaster management. So that every individual does not need to end up in the psychiatric ward.

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