The International Congress of Psychiatry, organized by the department of Psychiatry at National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS), as a part of its golden jubilee celebrations, has started here yesterday.

The 3-day event includes deliberations on various aspects of psychiatry including history, neurobiology, epidemiology, service delivery training, policy care for elders, and children, pharmacology, psychosocial therapies and management of disasters.

In India, about 10 per cent of the population may have some form of mental illness and one or two percent grave disorders. Many patients were unable to get appropriate treatment till recently.

The event, organised against this backdrop, holds guest lectures from invited speakers some from overseas, plenary sessions, symposia, panel discussion and poster sessions in the event, the officials informed.