A letter to the editor published in today's edition of The Chronicle Herald:
Most major psychiatric disorders begin in adolescence and early adulthood. The World Health Organization (WHO) has predicted that by 2020, major depression will rank first among all medical illnesses accounting for more of the global burden of disease than AIDS, war or traffic accidents, while bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and substance use disorders are in the WHO top 10.
Psychiatric illnesses have a strong genetic contribution associated with neurobiological abnormalities. While education, family and individual psychological support are an important part of the recovery plan, acute and preventative treatment is pharmacological.
Nova Scotia is in desperate need of a strategy for the identification and treatment of patients with psychiatric disorders. The specialists responsible for the care of these patients, along with research to improve diagnosis and develop effective and tolerable treatments, have had unprecedented difficulty negotiating with the Department of Health for funding to sustain and develop psychiatric services.
In fact, members of the Department of Psychiatry at the IWK Health Centre sent a detailed letter of concern to the Department of Health, detailing the resulting crisis in psychiatry service for patients and their families.
Therefore, it is concerning to read in your June 5 article about this topic from high-ranking government officials that "spending has increased by 63 per cent" – it certainly has not translated into funding for specialists or that "wait times stem from a shortage of psychologists and other mental health professionals rather than psychiatrists (physician specialists) alone." I wonder if cancer patients and their families or the specialists responsible for their care would accept this.
Anne Duffy, MD, FRCPC [pictured]
Professor and Clinical Research
Scholar, Department of Psychiatry, IWK Health Centre
Photograph courtesy of the Mood Disorders Centre of Ottawa.
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