The news, late on Friday, that 24-year-old actor Pratyusha Banerjee, best known for her role “Anandi” in the television show Balika Vadhu , had > ended her life after a bout of severe depression once again spotlights the issue of suicide. Soon after this incident, celebrities tweeted about it, with > Karan Johar saying it was “a wake-up call to families and friends who don’t consider depression a medical condition”.
The incident has shocked her friends with most unaware that she was battling depression — “as is the case with most patients with mental illnesses,” says Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Dr. Rajesh Sagar.
“Depression is not like physical illnesses. Therefore, it results in [the creation of] a lot of myths among patients. These are strong people dealing with internal battles. But their physical parameters are normal — they go to work and seem alright — which is why depression does not evoke the same sympathy as a physical ailment. There is help available, but it falls upon the families and friends in the person’s immediate circle to ensure that the patient seeks help,” says Dr. Sagar. At AIIMS, and as part of his research, he studies the myths that are associated with seeking treatment. “These range from misinformation about taking medication, to being stigmatised as a weak person. There is a treatment gap of nearly 90 per cent in [cases of] mental illnesses due to the fear of being labelled or stigmatised,” he adds.
What he means is that only 10 out of 100 patients come in for treatment. This is not surprising as India has among the highest rates of depression in the world. In 2012, as many as 1,35,445 people committed suicide in India. The rate of suicide last year stands at 11.2 cases for a one lakh population. As per figures (rounded-off) provided by the National Crime Records Bureau, on an average, there are 15 cases of suicide in an hour or 371 suicides a day.
Despite being preventable, especially among young people between 15-29 years, suicide is the second leading cause of death globally, according to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) global suicide atlas released in 2014. For every case of suicide there are many more people who attempt it each year. Pertinently, a prior attempt is the single most important risk factor for suicide in the general population. And the same report noted that one of the most effective strategies for preventing suicides and suicide attempts is to restrict access to the most common means resorted to which includes the use of pesticides, firearms and certain medications.
For every 100 patients who commit suicide, 90 have psychiatric disorders. Out of this, 75 suffer from depression — which is very much a treatable ailment, says the Director of Department of Mental Health and Behavioural Sciences, Fortis Healthcare, Dr. Samir Parikh. There is growing recognition that prevention strategies need to be tailored to each region and implemented in a culturally-sensitive manner.
Broadly, there are three types of hurdles — either help has not reached the patient or the patient has not continued with the treatment or, lastly, the patient does not even realise that she/he could seek help.
Awareness and accessibility need to be addressed at a policy level but immediate family and friends can help — by pushing a patient into seeking treatment. “What we have seen is that a majority of patients suffering from depression are malleable… they are open to try things to stop their suffering,” says Dr. Parikh.
One thing is clear, there is hope for everyone, he adds. The taboo and stigma surrounding mental illness will persist until we normalise it — talk about it in schools, among friends, in families and do not stigmatise [it].
vidya.krishnan@thehindu.co.in
