Contribution of Indian psychiatry in the development of psychiatry in Nepal

Abstract

Psychiatric services remained virtually unknown in Nepal until 1961. The first psychiatric outpatient service was started in 1961, at Bir Hospital, Kathmandu. In 1984, the Psychiatry Department at Bir Hospital was separated and a mental hospital was created, which was later shifted to its current location at Lagankhel, Patan, in Kathmandu valley, in 1985. It is the only mental hospital in Nepal with a current bed strength of 50 beds. The new era in medical learning and teaching was ushered in Nepal with the establishment of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) under the Tribhuban University and the 400-bed Tribhuban University-Teaching Hospital (TU-Teaching Hospital), in the year 1983. BP Koirala Institute of Health Sciences (BPKIHS) at Dharan was established in 1993, as a part of the joint Indo–Nepal collaboration on developing an international standard teaching, training, and research-oriented medical institute similar to AIIMS, New Delhi. During the last one-and-half decades a number of privately run medical colleges have come up in Nepal. Outpatient and inpatient Psychiatry Departments have been established in most of these government as well as private medical institutes. At present, the postgraduate course (MD) in psychiatry has been running in two government-run institutes as well as three privately run medical colleges. Indian psychiatrists have played and are still playing significant roles in establishing as well as maintaining Psychiatry Departments, especially in the private sector medical colleges. They have also contributed to the growth of psychiatry research and postgraduate teaching in psychiatry, in Nepal.