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Objectives. Suicide is a major public health concern. Sensible media reporting of suicide is one of the important prevention strategies. There has been no report assessing the quality of media reporting of suicide in Nepal. We aimed to assess the quality of newspaper reporting of suicide in Nepal against the World Health Organization (WHO) reporting guidelines. Methods. We undertook a content analysis study of articles from the online archives on reporting of suicide deaths in six English language (daily or weekly) newspapers published in Nepal over the two-year duration from a period between January 1, 2019, and December 31, 2020. Also, we compared them with the World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines. Results. A total of 165 English newspaper articles reporting on suicide were analyzed. 163 (98.8%) of news were published in the main section of the newspaper, and the mean length was 17.6 sentences. The name and age of the person who died of suicide were mentioned in about 69.1% (n = 114) and 53.3% (n = 88) articles, respectively. The most common method of suicide reported in the news articles was hanging (45.5%, n = 75), followed by poisoning (11.5%, n = 19). About 97.6% (n = 161) of news articles violated the recommendation provided in the WHO guidelines. Conclusions. The adherence to the WHO guidelines for media reporting of suicide in Nepal was found to be poor, with a large majority of news reports having at least one potentially harmful media characteristic. Only a small minority of news reports included potentially helpful information to prevent suicide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on comparative analysis of psychiatry curriculum at undergraduate level of Bangladesh, India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. Topics include the human and nonhuman resources available for mental health services in the South Asian countries are dismayingly inadequate in comparison with the developed world, and the number of patients with psychiatric disorders visit the medical settings for their treatment from primary care to tertiary care level.

The history of psychiatry as a discipline in Nepal has been poorly studied. We have attempted to summarise historical landmarks to explore how it began and its evolution over time in relation to contemporary political events. Although Nepal has achieved several milestones, from establishing a psychiatric out-patient department with one psychiatrist in 1961 to having more than 500 psychiatric in-patient beds with 200 psychiatrists by 2020, the pace, commitment and dedication seem to be slower than necessary: the current national mental health policy dates back to 1996 and has not been updated since; there is no Mental Health Act; the number of psychiatric nurses and in-patient psychiatric beds has increased only slowly; and there is a dearth of professional supervision in rehabilitation centres. Thus, despite making significant progress, much more is required, at greater intensity and speed, and with wide collaboration and political commitment in order to improve the mental health of all Nepali citizens, including those living in rural areas and or in deprived conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: South-East Asia is a densely populated region with a considerable, however, under-prioritized mental health burden. Little is known about the mental health burden and services status in the prisons of the region., Objectives: We aimed to investigate the individual country-wise prison mental health status in South-East Asian region., Methods: We performed a narrative review based on the evidence available in PubMed, Scopus, PsycINFO, Google, and Google Scholar considering the review objectives. We highlighted country perspectives on total population, prison numbers, prisoner numbers, the prevalence of psychiatric disorders and suicide among prisoners, prison mental health services, current challenges, and ways ahead., Results: We discussed the prison mental health of five countries (Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Nepal, and Sri Lanka). We found overcrowding (131.4%-215.6%) in the prisons, a high prevalence of psychiatric disorders in the prisons (40%-100%), negligible prison mental health services, and a lack of data on prison suicide with some variations among the five countries. Among the countries, Bangladesh has the highest prevalence (66.4%-100%) of psychiatric morbidity with an absence of a mental health system., Conclusions: Prison mental health in tSouth-East Asia is a neglected domain and warrants attention regarding ensuring adequate mental health services to the prisoners as there are high unmet mental health needs and an absence of poorly supported mental health needs., (© 2024 The Author(s). Brain and Behavior published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.)