PGI Psychiatry Department Celebrates 54th Foundation Day

By 121 News

Chandigarh 16^th September:- The Department of Psychiatry in Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh celebrated its 54^th Foundation Day on 16^th September. Prof. NN Wig, Founder of the Department and Professor Emeritus, spoke on this occasion and unveiled the photos of the previous Heads of the department. Prof. Ajit Avasthi, present Head, talked about the contribution of the department for Indian psychiatry and world psychiatry. Prof. Debasish Basu made a presentation on 53 years of the Department. Former Head of the Department Prof. P. Kulhara and other retired faculty members spoke on this occasion.

Professor N.N. Wig recalled his days when he joined PGI Chandigarh on 16.09.1963 after his specialist training in USA and UK. There was no "department" of psychiatry in those early days of the institute, and he had to literally start from scratch. Over the years, department grew from strength to strength, establishing itself as one of the most influential general hospital psychiatry units not only in India but also in world in terms of teaching, research and services. The department runs daily outdoor in psychiatry, drug deaddiction, and child and adolescent psychiatry. It also runs special services in the areas of consultation liaison psychiatry, marital and psychosexual disorders, psychotherapies, opioid substitution therapy, dual diagnosis, autistic and learning disorder, electroconvulsive therapy and repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) services. In addition to hospital based services, the department also runs community psychiatric services in Punjab and Haryana. It sees around 18,000 new cases and around 30,000 old cases in a year. It trains around 30 MD Psychiatry residents, 3 DM Addiction Psychiatry residents, 4 DM in Child and adolescent Psychiatry, 6 Masters in Psychiatric nursing students, 1-2 Ph.D. and several trainees from other departments at any given time. The department for the first time in 2014 started DM in Addiction Psychiatry in India. The department has nearly 1800 publications, conducted around 200 funded researches and won many laurels at national and international levels.