Locus, Focus and Modus of Stigma in Psychiatry – The Time Travel of Psychiatry

Stigma with Psychiatry and Psychiatric services is age long. It was too late for Psychiatry to be considered a branch of medicine and post –roman era saw many inhuman treatments done to patients with mental illnesses. The early health centers established for mentally ill were mostly custodial centers aimed to prevent harm to others by the mentally ill patients. A German physician named Johann Christian Reil first coined the term Psychiatry in 1808. The acceptance of mental illness is both, knowledge based and culture bound. Even, today there are places, where mental illness is considered the act of evil or witchcraft. The perception of people in any given society or the family determines the health seeking behavior related to psychiatric services. The practice of psychiatry rests on the detailed evaluation of biological, social and psychological factors related to the patient, which work in unison to manifest the symptoms. Recent studies are, however pointing more towards biological causation of psychiatric disorders and technologies have played a pivotal role in elucidating the biological basis, the common ones being f MRI, PET, and SPECT. The ICD 10 clearly says, that there are no functional disorders and all psychiatric disorders have biological basis. This author aims to highlight the current scenario and the factors contributing to stigma related to seeking psychiatric services in the country. Keywords: Stigma, Mental Health, Psychiatric Services