KARACHI: Health experts on Friday observed that despite the fact that mental health disorders were taking an alarming toll on people in Pakistan, the country lacked the required number of certified psychiatrists. They said that around 80 million Pakistanis were suffering from physiological and mental illnesses. Speakers said this while addressing an international conference on ‘Rehabilitation: Translational, Clinical and Research Perspectives’ hosted by Ziauddin University. Experts said that in Pakistan, mental disorders account for more than 4% of the total disease burden, with the mental health burden higher among women. However, allocated resources for the screening and treatment of mental health disorders are not enough to meet the increasing needs. Addressing the conference, Dr Sabahat Wasti, Vice President World Federation for Neuro-Rehabilitation, Gulf Region, said that today US has over 11000 board-certified psychiatrists who work in complete coordination and commitment for rehabilitation. “Moreover, it is important to mention here that despite a much bigger population, Pakistan at present lacked certified experts in comparison to that of United States in the field of rehabilitation,” Dr Wasti said. She said that rehabilitation was no longer a backend service; ‘it is underscored as a forefront specialty, certainly an adjunct in clinical research which is intended to enable disabled patients in maintaining an optimal physical, sensory and psychological function’. Dr Sabahat Wasti added that early rehabilitation can prevent a lot that is associated with disease as secondary loss and largely results in increasing patient’s and family’s satisfaction. “Medical rehabilitation should form the core element of all treatment protocols. It is essential for patients receiving advanced neurological, cardiac, pulmonary, cancer and trauma care. It is now the need of the hour for a country like Pakistan to begin investing in the field of rehabilitation without further delay,” she insisted. She further highlighted and added that now that massive progress is being made in the discipline of rehabilitation with the latest emerging trends of technology and medical advancement as new modalities of treatment become available that improve survival of antibiotics, surgery, steroids, chemotherapy, and innovative surgeries. Another speaker, Muhammad Adeel Parvaz, Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Neuroscience, Fredman Brain Institute, New York, while delivering a lecture on ‘Recovery and Rehabilitation in Addiction’ said that drug addiction was more a brain disease now, than a social problem. “Like other diseases, drug addiction is also preventable, treatable but if it fails to be remediable then it will last forever,” Parvaz added. Speaking at the conference, former Federal Minister and Chancellor Ziauddin University, Dr Asim Hussain stressed the importance of research and analysis. “In today’s era, modern medicine, philosophy, engineering, upgraded technology are moving parallel together, research is a key stone in the process of collection of data, its analysis, hypothesis and final conclusions drawn,” he said. Published in Daily Times, February 24th 2018.