Does Mind Exist in Physician’s Mind? A Brief Phone Survey in Bangladesh

Abstract

Mental health literacy (MHL) has been defined as the knowledge, beliefs and abilities that enable the recognition, management or prevention of mental health problems. From history of demonic procession concept to modern neuroscientific explanation is the outcome of advancement in mental health literacy. It’s now evidence that, neural connections that form networks and circuits in the brain are essential to the existence of the mind. The health infrastructure doesn’t included mental health concept yet in service delivery system in developing part of glove. Medical education in under graduation level is still dominantly focused on physical health. Computer assisted telephone interview (CATI) is a modern method of phone survey and globally many survey done to explore the mental health literacy in population. Prior conventional broad based study; it was a snapshot of current scenario of knowledge among physicians. It was a cross sectional phone survey among physicians in three hospitals at Dhaka city in Bangladesh. Though almost 60% of physicians said that they know the seat of mind in the body, 11% of them said “Heart” is the anatomical location. The prevalence of mental disorders is 18% in child adolescents and 16% among adults in Bangladesh. To combat the situation, sound knowledge of mind, mental health and mental illness is mandatory in physician community. In future, further exploration of mental health literacy MHL could be helpful to detect the gap and to formulate an effective mental health service system.