Role of nurses in mental health-care
Addressing mental and neurological disorders: Impact evaluation of ongoing projects to strengthen primary health-care
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phenobarbitone. Carbamazepine has been kept as a second-line medicine if patients fail to respond to phenobarbitone.
Impact indicator: Reduction in treatment gap was the impact
indicator. The treatment gap for epilepsy was reduced from 87 to 5.
Challenges: The most important contributor to the treatment gap is
the health-seeking behaviour of patients. Due to ignorance and local beliefs about mental illness, patients prefer to seek help from traditional
prescribers and faith healers. Another challenge faced is the irregular supply of psychotropic medication at the upazila health complex, forcing people to
purchase them from private pharmacies. Many patients believe that they should go to tertiary care hospitals for treatment of mental and neurological
disorders rather than the upazila health complex.