Physical illnesses can trigger mental problems--study

As per doctors, mental problems can be triggered due to either minor or major (chronic) physical illnesses.

They revealed that the patients suffering from chronic illness, not just suffer from minor mental issues like anxiety, but major ones such as phobias, depression, and sexual dysfunction can also plague them.

Dr Ganesh Kumar, head of cardiology at L H Hiranandani Hospital, revealed that troublesome thing is that one in every three patients is suffering from minor mental problems these days.

"Patients suffering from a heart failure or an attack, especially younger ones, develop severe mental problems. First of all, the patients do not want to accept the fact that they are chronically ill. And when they do, they directly start fearing death.

"Many young patients also start believing that having sex will stress out on their heart, which might lead to another attack. This causes sexual dysfunction and frustration in the patient as well as the spouse," said Dr. Kumar.

Negativity plays major part
Doctors revealed that people suffering from chronic diseases such as drug-resistant TB or lung fibrosis start harboring negative thoughts over the time, which in turn triggers minor and major mental issues.

About 14-20 percent of chronically ill patients battle with psychological problems, in addition to minor distress and anxiety.

According to Dr Ashok Mahasur, chest physician with Hinduja Hospital, "Only around 20% of people-those who are not well educated or those who do not know much about the disease-have little anxiety.”

Patients with chronic kidney ailments too suffer from extreme bouts of sadness and depression. But those who “have to go for dialysis regularly, undergo great trauma” to the extent that they start feeling unproductive and burden on their families, which contributes in increasing their mental problems.

Time to understand
The stigma attached to mental illness in society is so great that despite realizing the need for treatment people generally try to hide their illness.

However, it’s high time that society as a whole understands that mental problems need expert intervention. And they also need to realize that physical ailments too have the tendency to trigger mental illnesses.

"If a person is suffering from diabetes and goes into depression, the family thinks it is because of erratic sugar levels. If symptoms of mental problems are taken care of along with the treatment for the physical illness, patients tend to recover sooner," said psychiatrist Dr Harish Shetty.