The National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro-Sciences (NIMHANS), Bangalore has been elevated as an institute of national importance by the Union government.  The Union Cabinet headed by Prime Minster Dr Manmohan Singh approved a proposal of the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare in this regard recently.

The move makes NIMHANS on par with All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh and Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education & Research, Puducherry.

The Cabinet also approved introduction of the “National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences Bangalore Bill, 2009” in Parliament.   This will facilitate NIMHANS to develop patterns of teaching, with the flexibility to device new courses, constantly evolving syllabi.  The Institute will be able to take up new courses that are required and are not currently part of the Medical Council of India (MCI) approved courses.

“We are honoured as the status given to us by the government of India. This will give us the flexibility to start new courses and take independent decisions,” stated Dr SK Shankar, Dean of Faculty, National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences. 
 
“The new status will now bring in more financial assistance to expand the activities and the increase the faculty strength and a boost to the training and education efforts in addition to the treatment provided to scores of patients,” he added.
 
Currently NIMHANS which has around 140 doctors and 21 departments is recognized for its psychiatric care, neuro surgical  efforts,  handling of accident trauma and providing timely intervention to control epilepsy.

 There are several faculty who have bagged awards for their finding in schizophrenia and neuro microbiology, neuro virology  among others.

 NIMHAMS was one of the key referral labs for the H1N1 and Japanese Encephalitis.

There is also a dedicated Human Brain Tissue Repository (HBTR) for neurobiological studies have collaborated with three major research centres for brain tumour studies. In fact, it is India’s first and only  a human brain bank recognized national research facility managed by Department of Neruopathology, NIMHANS. This is the only centre offering this service in India which assists neurologists in establishing the diagnosis based on immunostaining of brain tissue. Brains  are collected from various patients suffering from neurological disorders, psychiatric illness, epilepsy, dementia and neuroinfections like HIV, rabies, herpes encephalitis, tuberculosis, meningitis, etc. after post mortem and with the informed consent of the close relatives.

The HBTR has collaborated with the Indian Institute of Science, Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advance Scientific Research and National Brain Research Centre, Manesar, Haryana. There is also a registry cataloguing the Creuzfeldt Jacob Disease (CJD) which is human counterpart of mad cow disease functioning in the Department of Neuropathology as a part of Human Brain Bank.

Going by the integrated efforts of the departments at NIMHANS, the government acknowledgement has now catapulted us to the next level of research and training, said Dr Shankar.