Psychiatric disorders and holistic therapies

Psychiatric disorders are the most prevalent problems of modern living, with drugs for the management of these disorders selling in billions of dollars every year around the world. It is estimated that about 50 million people have either moderate or severe forms of psychiatric disorders in India.[1] The same article mentions that India provides one bed per 40,000 population and three psychiatrists per million population. This works out to approximately 3000 trained psychiatrists for the entire country. The expertise is available mostly in the cities and not for the rural population, wherein the requirements for psychiatric support and management are critical. The rural group can ill afford loss of workdays, hospital admissions, costly tests, and other requirements of modern medicine.