MELBOURNE, 2nd July 1996/MMNS-AsiaNet/ --
Schizophrenia, a mental disorder that is associated with modern urban pressures, is as prevalent in Asian countries as in western populations, experts said here at an international gathering of psychiatrists.
One leading specialist, Professor Qi Jie Shen, of the Shenzhen Institute of Mental Health, Shenzhen, Republic of China, estimated that there are 12- 15 million schizoprehenia patiens in his country. He was speaking during an interview at the 20th Congress of the International Congress of Neuro- Psychopharmacology.
The disease can be devastating for the individual and often involves long periods of hospitalization. It also imposes a heavy medical care burden on society, with annual direct and indirect costs estimated at over US$30 billion yearly in the United States alone.
The disease is as prevalent in Japan as in China, according to a Japanese expert, Professor Mitsukuni Murasaki, Director of the Institute of Neuro- Psychiatry, Kitasato University East Hospital, Kanagawa, Japan. It also ranks as an important mental disorder in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand. Among other Asian countries, other specialists confirmed here.
It was not a disease associated only with the rapid growth of cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Bandung, Jakarta or Hong kong.
In a paper given at the Congress, Professor Norman Sartorius, President of the World Psychiatric Association, pointed out that schizophrenia also occurred even in remote villages in developing countries.
Here the challenge was even greater, because in the past the stigma attached to the disease was so great that families often concealed the afflicted individual.
"Now these patients are coming out into the open, and their parents may be too old to take care of them," said Professor Sartorius.
Meanwhile, data reported at the Congress indicated that rapid progress was being made in research into new medications for the illness.
One of the problems associated with existing medical therapies was that they often cause serious side effects, including trembling and shaking. As a consequence, patients frequently interrupt treatment.
Results from a series of major clinical studies conducted worldwide indicate that one of the first of these new drugs, Olanzapine (Eli Lilly) was highly effective and much more easily tolerated by patients. Some psychiatrists at the meeting said the compound could be considered a breakthrough in the treatment of schizophrenia.
Contact: James Magee, MEDEV Medical News Service,
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