Deadly superstitions

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 15^th, 2013.

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