In Kashmir around 1.8 million people accounting for 45 per cent approximately with the valley`s adult population. This will show some symptoms of mental distress from the survey ‘Medecins Sans Frontieres’. Among them, 1.6 million adults in the valley are living with depression and meeting 4,15,000 diagnostic criteria for severe depression.

“An estimated one million adults (26 percent) in the valley are living with significant symptoms of anxiety-related disorders,” said the survey.

According to the study from Medical humanitarian organisation ‘Medicins Sans Frontieres’ doctors without Borders done in collaboration with the Department of Psychology, Kashmir University and Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences in Kerala.

Nearly one in five adults in Kashmir is having the Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, PTSD with some symptoms in 7,71,000 individuals meeting the diagnostic criteria says the survey.

“This survey provides, for the first time, an insight into the level of mental distress in all 10 districts of the Kashmir Valley ,” says Dr. Tambri Housen, MSF’s principal researcher.

The study also says Communities have little knowledge of mental health services through socio-cultural and biomedical models. This emphasized employment generation and decentralization of services awareness programmes to improve the mental health with early detection of medical services.

“One crucial outcome of the focus group discussions held in each district was a clear gap in accessibility to mental health services. The main barrier to treatment included lack of awareness of available mental health services. Other commonly mentioned obstacles included distance, travel time and associated costs,” said an MSF statement.