Distress can manifest in aches, indigestion!

Lucknow, Sep 3 (UNI) Next time you experience indigestion and gastritis, do not simply put the blame on the previous night's spicy and oily grub, since the genesis of trouble could possibly lie elsewhere.

Mental health experts claim that aches, pain, indigestion and gastro troubles are sometimes the manifestations of distress and have little to do with food and other external factors.

''The field of medicine has traditionally been learning about body without mind...here lies the lacuna,'' Dr Roy Abraham Kallivayalil, one of India's leading psychiatrists told UNI here today.

The mental make-up of a person comprising feelings of fear, anger, distress, jealousy and anxiety could result in general ailments such as pains and indigestion, he said.

The Professor of Psychiatry, Thrissur Medical College, Kerala, claimed such cases were mostly diagnosed by general physicians, who prescribed standard medicines without trying to reason it out.

''Even the doctors are not aware that the root of the trouble is mind and not body in certain cases,'' he observed.

Dr Kallivayalil suggested that a holistic approach to diagnose and treat patients was urgently needed in the medical world.

''Medicines alone are not the panacea to health problems and counselling can go a long way in alleviating people's troubles,'' he averred.

Dr Kallivayalil is also the Steering Committee Member, World Psychiatric Association.

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