Depression as a symptom and a disease has been recognized from antiquity. While numerous references to melancholia, illnesses of the heart broken, and delusions of guilt are found in Shakespearean literature, world literature, stories, and dramas the world over, yet the development of modern western medicine has by and large tended to ignore all things psychological in the process of disease recognition and understanding. Even the face of a depressed patient, so obvious to the initiated, is a rarely taught and recognized sign of ill health by non- psychiatrists. The long association of psychiatry with severe psychoses in the minds of medical teachers has dulled the sense of astuteness in the picking up of anxiety and depression. It has also dulled the medical profession into the delusion that mental illnesses do not occur in general hospitals. Thus the fairly large number of mental problems in every day clinical practice remains an area of darkness. In practice, the pick up rate of all mental illnesses in primary care remains very low at less than 5% of all mental illnesses while studies show that about 25% of all primary care patients have significant mental problems that necessitate their attendance in the primary care clinics.
Malaysia is a tropical country in the heart of South East Asia, at the crossroads of the ancient east-west sea trade routes. Although independent from British colonial rule only in 1957, it has a recorded history dating back to at least the first century CE, when the region was already the source of valuable mineral and forest produce that found markets in China, India and further west.
The management of schizophrenias has undergone a revolution with the advent of Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT) and a whole range of psycho-pharmaceuticals this century. Along with these, the newer trends towards more humane, and psycho-oriented patient-care have resulted in the management of patients in srnall general hospital units hardly different from a surgical or medical ward. The different areas of treatment of the schizophrenic cannot all be accomplished in a general practice clinic but a surprising number of these patients are successfully managed as out-patients. This paper aims to outline the modern methods used in the management of the schizophrenias and their suitability in general practice.
Mental illnesses and mental health have, out of ignorance and fear, evoked a low priority in healthcare systems the world over. The concept that all mental illnesses were synonymous with madness has its origins in the beginnings of ignorance and fear. To a large extent, these have contributed to the marginalization of psychiatry and neglect of the mentally ill. The kings of old, seeing the ill-treatment of the mentally ill, built asylums for them, but again, the prejudice soon was overwhelming and care of the mentally ill was often given to those who were not the best administrators and carers. The long and controversial tradition of mental asylum care for the mentally ill was also brought about by the lack of specific treatments for mental illnesses. With the advent of chlorpromazine in the 1950s and other psychotropics afterwards, the need for incarceration in asylums became largely redundant. However, what also became obvious soon after was the fact that the psychotropics only helped to control symptoms and not to cure diseases of the mind. Although considerable research has gone into attempts at correcting supposed defects in neurotransmission, the cure of mental illness seems some way off. The need for rehabilitating or re-housing those with mental illnesses especially those needing long-term care and those whose cure seems difficult has been recognized for a long time. It was Phillipe Pinel who almost 200 years ago unchained the mental patients at an asylum in Paris and proposed work therapy and humane care. Psychosocial rehabilitation of the mentally ill is not, therefore, a new concept. The need for methods of changing the behavior, thinking and functioning of those with severe mental illnesses using psychological, social, occupational, behavioral and medical methods is called psychosocial rehabilitation. This method, although developed in stages over the past two centuries, has undergone changes and deterioration and development in different parts of the world with different priorities and emphasis.
Cambodia is a developing south-east Asian country located in the fertile Mekong delta. Its recent past has been complicated by European colonialism and internal conflict. Health including mental health services are limited and sparse in regional and rural areas. Very constrained public mental health facilities and services are hampered by a shortage of a skilled workforce and insufficient training programs. The recent formation of the Mental Health Association of Cambodia promises to be a positive step forward in promoting mental health throughout the country.