The People's Republic of Bangladesh is located in South Asia. The total land area of Bangladesh is 147 570 km2. Its total population in 2001 was about 123 million. The population growth rate is 1.47%; of the total population, 75% live in rural areas and 25% in urban areas (Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, 2000).

Health indicators

Life expectancy at birth in 1998 was estimated to be 61 years for both sexes. The infant mortality rate was 57 per 1000 live births in 1998. The number of hospital beds is 43 143 and the number of registered physicians is 30 869 (Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, 2000).

History of psychiatric services in Bangladesh

In what is now Bangladesh, there were no mental health facilities until 1947, when India was divided. (Psychiatric patients had to go to the Central European Asylum in Ranchi, which was too far away for many people.) In that situation the government (of what was then East Pakistan) decided to establish a mental hospital, and in 1957 one was opened in Pabna, a district town 175 km from the capital, Dhaka. Initially it was a 50-bed hospital, but it grew to become today a 500-bed hospital. In 1974 Dhaka Medical College introduced a mental health service. This service was then extended to the Institute of Postgraduate Medicine and Research (now Bangabhandu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, BSMMU) and other medical colleges, as well as to the Institute of Mental Health and Research. This service included both outpatient and in-patient departments. At present, all 13 government medical colleges and hospitals and some of the non-government medical college hospitals provide psychiatric services, both out-patient and in-patient.

Prevalence of psychiatric disorder

Psychiatric disorder is common in Bangladesh, as in any other country, but the psychiatric service at present is confined to Pabna Mental Hospital, the Institute of Mental Health, the BSMMU and the medical college hospitals (Islam et al, 1993). Although the results of a recent national survey of psychiatric morbidity are yet to published, the evidence from smaller surveys suggests that psychiatric disorder is prevalent in both the urban and rural communities. In a survey of the rural population of Dasherkandi (a village near Dhaka) it was found that 29 per 1000 people suffered from psychiatric disorder, and an additional 36 per 1000 had both a psychiatric and a physical disorder (Chowdhury et al, 1981).