More than one story has appeared in recent times highlighting the growing number of people suffering from mental stress or illness who require a physician's intervention. One particular report went to great lengths to draw attention to the fact that business was booming for those prescribing the magic pill for the rising number of afflicted patients. The article defined a few regional factors that have led some to the path of anxiety and depression. I sensed that the report failed to focus on the remedial actions of those in the medical profession who are tasked to deal with such mental anguish. Many patients have reportedly complained that there is little in the way of qualified local therapeutic help or psychiatric treatment at Saudi hospitals or clinics. A key to understanding mental health and mental illness is to define these terms within cultural contexts. With just a handful of Saudi psychiatrists in an altogether Saudi culture, foreign practitioners of mental health and treatment often fall short in delivering the therapeutical goods effectively as unique social mores and traditions are not fully understood during their analysis. At major hospitals swarms of patients waiting dolefully for their monthly prescriptions of mind-soothing drugs are not an uncommon sight. The psychiatrist on duty seems to have a numbers quota to fill, and patients are shuttled in and out of the doctor's office led willingly by a nurse, only to emerge within a span of a few minutes with prescriptions in hand. It seems that very little effort is made by those in this noble profession to understand the mechanics and triggers that have led these patients to seek such help. Any student of psychology or psychiatry will tell you that to treat a patient effectively, one must get to the core cause of the issue that is giving rise to the disturbances swirling about a patient's head. This is way before any pills are readily prescribed. But as long as some of these doctors have a prescription pad handy, patients are fed with mind-bending chemicals deadly enough to put a horse down. And this is often done without prior testing of the patient's reactions to such pills. Whether the doctors are working in unison with the drug suppliers is another issue, but what is a certainty is that there have been far too many cases of patients being prescribed the wrong medication, and especially in the field of mental illness. Stories of patients erroneously diagnosed and given epileptic medication when all they needed was perhaps a change of climate and some rest are not uncommon. Neither are cases of mind-altering medication being dispensed to patients who had a slight case of anxiety. Whether it is a case of a psychiatrist pushing pills to get to the next patient and thus increase revenue for his hospital, or simply incompetence on the part of the psychiatrist should come under close scrutiny by the Ministry of Health. Some people are very trusting of their doctors and will pop pills as instructed. And when there are severe or in some cases extreme reactions, they are generally blamed on the patient or as "acts of God". In the field of mental health, the problem is more intense as mind-altering drugs can be destructive and sometimes create a lifelong dependency factor. Whether the patient's situation really warrants such powerful medication or not should not be decided by the need to process the highest number of patients through hospital corridors, or by the wheeling and dealing between physicians and drug salesmen and traders, but by a serious evaluation of the problem on hand. Patients who have been given prescriptions during such times should try to read up on these drugs or get another opinion or two. When in doubt, hold off. One should not be too quick to pop those pills, because to reverse the effect of these medications is often very agonizing.
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