The growing importance of mental health: are medical curricula responding?

Mental health is becoming an important issue. Several local and international studies have proven that the incidence of mental illness is on the rise. Doctors have also been able to make more accurate diagnoses and treat mental disorders more reliably with the aid of recent research and newer drugs. As such it is necessary for the medical curricula to respond to this shift. Medical students must now be exposed to new psychiatric disorders and ways of managing them. The time spent in psychiatry and the mode of teaching must also be revised and modified to the current needs of patients.