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What led you to take up psychology and what motivated you into the research on Schizophrenia? I pursued psychiatry as higher study, in Mumbai after I did my MBBS. I had many opportunities to attend many cases afflicted by Schizophrenia. Since then my interest has been focussed on study of this mental disorder. What are the reasons that lead to mental dementia? Mental disorders fall under two categories. Some people are mentally retarded by birth. Their IQ would be far below as compared to an average person. Others move towards a demented state by several unforeseen reasons - in almost all the cases, family circumstances have played a big role in this. They are affected by various kinds of social pressures too and feel helpless, affected and stressed. That takes the shape of Schizophrenia by and by. How is it possible to know that a person’s mind is affected? All the other diseases that affect a person’s physique can be diagnosed by various scans and tests. You can identify the person with an affected mind just by his or her behaviour. In the initial stages the affliction is discernible by several symptoms. The person would be seen speaking to himself or herself, he or she would not be interested in doing anything and would be weary and tired most of the time, they would lose their temper frequently, suffer from insomnia. In short, there would be a marked difference from their normal behaviour. These are early symptoms. If they are not taken proper care of at this stage, they would by and by move towards much serious disorders and would even indulge in violent acts that would affect others. Is it possible to cure such persons completely, doctor? It depends on the extent to which the person is affected. If he or she is brought in the initial stages, it is possible to bring them back to normalcy within a short space of time. However, if they are brought in an advanced condition when they indulge in violent acts, it would then be necessary to go into the reasons for such behaviour, put them in a changed environment and under regular medication and care. It takes time to bring them back to normalcy. It is important that the relatives of the person who is affected, especially those at home, do not isolate them. They should treat them with love and affection, spend some time conversing with them and give them the prescribed medicine at regular intervals as specified. That would help a lot. I would reiterate that it is most important that such patients are not isolated at home, not spoken to or left aloof. What is the kind of people that is affected by Schizophrenia, mostly? People in the age group of right from 15 to 46 are most vulnerable. Both men and women are affected equally by this disease. If women are affected because of the family environment, men have an additional cause - alcoholism. Excessive indulgence would for sure lead to Schizophrenia. What are you doing in your Research Foundation at Anna Nagar?
Only such patients who are in an advanced stage and need absolute personal attention and treatment as inpatients are admitted in our clinic. In the case of others, we provide counselling to the patients as well as to their family members, hand them the necessary medicines and advice the family members especially on how to move with such afflicted persons. There are therefore inpatients as well as outpatients treated in our centre. What was the Marfatia award given to you for? It was for my research on persons who are affected mentally but are not treated. Around 27% of persons who are affected by this disease are not treated at all, because people around them are not able to see the symptoms and understand the condition of the patient. In short, since none is able to see mental ill health, such patients are not brought for proper care and medical attention. It is sad that such patients are brought for treatment when they turn violent and when it becomes impossible for others to bear with their behaviour. But by that time, the disease would have taken them in their grip and they would be in an advanced stage. The Marfatia award was given to me for my research on such patients. Maheswari
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The Government of Tamil Nadu recently awarded ‘Young woman research scientist award’ to Dr. R. Padmavathy who is the Asst. Director of Schizophrenia Research Foundation (SCARF), which is functioning from Anna Nagar, Chennai. It is estimated that one in every hundred is afflicted by Schizophrenia, a mental derangement. The Concise Oxford Dictionary defines Schizophrenia thus: “Noun. A long term mental disorder of a type involving a breakdown in the relation between thought, emotion, and behaviour, leading to faulty perception, inappropriate actions and feelings and withdrawal from reality into fantasy and delusion.” Padmavathy has been pursuing her research over the past ten years, on the effects of pressures of family and social environments that affects the mental equanimity of a person and makes him or her a schizophrenic. She has made a short film running for seven minutes on this. Apart from the Tamil Nadu Government’s award, she has been the recipient of the association of psychiatrists of Pune, Marfatia award etc. Her research papers have been published by various international psychiatric journals - especially from Britain. We had a conversation with Dr. Padmavathy, excerpts from which appear below.
It is seventeen years now, since its inception. Three of us - Dr. A. Thara, Dr. T. N. Srinivasan and myself are working together here. I am the Asst. Director of the centre. We take care of women patients here in Anna Nagar. There is a separate clinic for men in Mahabalipuram Road. We do not charge anything for treatment of patients, here. We provide all medicine free of cost, excepting of course those which are expensive. 
