Is Mental Health Screening Being Sidelined In Routine Tests?

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There’s a lot of buzz around the word mental health. Before we dive into this topic let us first understand what mental health actually means.

Mental health by definition is the state of mental well-being. This includes your emotional, psychological and social well-being. In simpler terms it means your ability to think, how you think, feel, cope up with stress of your life.

Mental health is equally important as our physical health. I would like to quote this with a beautiful phrase “There is no health without mental health” which is very relevant in today’s time.

When does a person know that he/she may suffer from some mental health disease? It is when they start to recognize that there is impairment in daily routine, noticeable shift in sleeping patterns, mood swings, appetite changes, anxious/worried, decreased thinking ability, loss of interest in doing things that once gave them pleasure, risk of self-harm.

There are many mental health screening questionnares such as - PHQ-9, GAD-7, GHQ-12, DASS-21 etc. These tests are usually not a part of our routine healthcare screening however, it becomes very important to incorporate these questionnares as a part of routine health checkups. Few reasons as to why these should be incorporated are:

  • It helps in early detection and treatment of the disease when it is still in its initial stages.

  • It helps spread awareness and breaks the stigma around mental health.

  • It helps in providing a better patient care.

  • It helps improve patients ability to function.

  • It helps improve the patient outcomes in patients with chronic illness.

But there can be time constraints, lack of training or insufficient screening protocols due to which these tests may not be included as a part of our routine health checkups.

Afterall, 'It’s okay to not be okay, and it’s okay to talk about it"

What is your opinion on if mental health screening should be a part of routine health tests ? Do you think the common screening tools for anxiety and depression should be used ?

MBH/PS

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I feel that mental health screen should also be part of routine health test since mental health is important and can affect us physically too. The aspect of false postives where a normal stress can be misinterpreted should be taken care of and the fact that this only us a hint that a patient might need more support so it doesn’t give us a conclusive answer.

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I think it should be made mandatory, as everything starts from a right mindset and mental well being. Even using the word ocd has become very common now. They’ve made it sound so cool and insufferable that people in need have been neglected. Mental health have to considered foremost important.

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I think in India , we as citizens and professionals also have to think about it, we pay such less heed when it comes to mental health. Yes it should be definitely be a topic of discussion.

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I think it’s high time in India that we should normalise mental health screening tests.I feel it should be included in Routine health checkups.

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Yes we there should be prioritisation of mental health checkup as the mental health is much as important as physical health. If you are nit mentally fit and stable your physical strength will also give, you can’t focus on any work even you can’t have a peaceful life.

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Yes, I think it should be a part of routine health tests. There is already this stigma around mental health and a lack of awareness around the same. People often don’t deem it necessary to get themselves (and often their children) checked for these issues. So making it a part of the overall health checkup will help to curb this issue.

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Routine mental health assessments should become a vital part of primary investigations. Instead of diagnosing a mental illness when a physical one is not evident.

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We are talking too much about physical illness but avoid talking about mental illness. This may be because of social stigma, fear of judgement or a desire to avoid painful memories and past trauma. However because of this, many patients end up worsening their condition. Therefore we should speak up if we are suffering.