The paper is an autobiographical account of growth of Psychiatry in India, during the last six decades. It highlights on the development of treatment modalities in psychiatry especially on psychopharmacological drugs. The establishment of general hospital psychiatry and manpower development in the field of mental health are other areas which are discussed.

Period of Custodial Care Only: The magnificent “Institute of Mental Health” has its history almost from 1795 when the East India company appointed Surgeon Valentine Conolly to be in charge of a “House for accommodating persons of unsound mind.” After a few transitions, backed by a government order for the construction of a lunatic asylum in a 66 1/2 acre site, the asylum started functioning from 1871. The period of about six decades from its inception could be referred to as “the period of custodial care.” However, the quality of care for the general medical problems gradually improved with the creation of separate facilities for some common ailments and also one for seriously ill. Separate wards were also conceptualized for criminal patients and female inmates. Towards Modern Comprehensive Patient Care: Thanks to Government sanctions, the staff strength gradually increased with regularization of bed strength to 1800, and by 1948-1957, the hospital had 14 medical officers and a host of other staff. The period from 1939 to 1948 witnessed the introduction of electroconvulsive therapy and insulin coma therapy including the modified one and also insulin histamine therapy. During the prephenothiazine era, the drugs used were barbiturates, paraldehyde, opiates, and Rauwolfia serpentina, which were discontinued after the use of Chlorpromazine from 1954. Psychosurgery was also undertaken in selected cases from 1948, but the procedure went out of vogue soon due to the quality of outcome being poor and development of complications. Rehabilitation of patients got a fillip with the introduction of occupation therapy in 1949 and industrial therapy center in 1970. Extension of psychiatric services to general hospitals began from 1949. Advances in Academic Spheres And Research Activities: Regular training was imparted to paramedical and undergraduate medical students from 1948. The institute had the privilege of hosting the Annual National Conference of Indian Psychiatric Society - 1957. The institute also spearheaded in several pioneering researches such as insulin coma therapy, syphilis, and Alzheimer's dementia, to name a few. The pivotal role played by the State Psychiatric Institutes in patient care, training, and research, should speak for adequate empowerment of these government institutes.

The history of psychiatry in Bengal mirrors the history of psychiatry in India. With Bengal being an important location for the East India Company, it became the locus for much infrastructure development, including the setting up of lunatic asylums. This article traces the development of psychiatric care in Bengal, from the early time of private asylums exclusively for Europeans, to psychiatric care in the present time.

The communication between G. S Bose and Sigmund Freud is a well-documented fact, and philosophical blend of rich cultural experiences is unique to modification of traditional psychoanalysis in the context of development of psychiatry in West Bengal. The Calcutta lunatic asylum was established at Bhowanipore, and first general hospital psychiatric unit was formed at R. G. Kar Medical College, Calcutta. Prof. Ajita Chakraborty was a pioneer to describe her struggling days in the early career and shared her views with experiences in her autobiography. The volume and quality of research work, especially in the field of epidemiology led by Dr. D. N. Nandi is worth mentioning. A jail had been converted to mental hospital which is the largest in terms of bed strength (n = 350) at Berhampore, Murshidabad district where Kazi Nazrul Islam and Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose had spent some period as prisoner during British rules. Bankura was the first district in West Bengal to start District Mental Health program. The various nongovernmental organizations are working together in public–private partnership model or indigenous ways in tandem over years for the betterment of mental health services both at institutional and community level.

Ranchi Institute of Neuro-Psychiatry and Allied Sciences (RINPAS; Ranchi Indian Mental Hospital; Ranchi Manasik Aryogyashala) traces its origin from a lunatic asylum for Indian soldiers established at Munghyr in Bihar in 1795 and thus is the first mental hospital in India established by the British purely for Indian patients as well as the second oldest functioning mental hospital in India. The hospital made great strides in improving patients care and using modern methods of assessment and treatment as well as education and research during the tenure of Dr J E Dhunjibhoy the first Indian medical superintendent. As a result the mortality rate was the lowest among the mental hospitals in Indian. There was a shift from custodial care to curative treatment. Since 1930s psychiatric training was given to undergraduate medical students of Patna Medical College and subsequently from Darbhanga and Cuttack. The Institute was affiliated to Universities of London and Edinburgh for Diploma in Psychological Medicine in 1936. The thesis work of the first Indian MD (Psychiatry) was done at this institute. Subsequently many psychiatrists completed their MD (Psychiatry) under the guidance of Dr L.P. Verma at this institute. A number of staff and alumini of the institute held the post of President and office bearers of Indian Psychiatric Society (IPS), starting with Dr J.E. Dhunjibhoy, the first president of the IPS. The Institute declined in the 1980s but after intervention of the Supreme Court it was transformed into an autonomous institute. Under the new dispensation the institution is regaining its vitality. Care and facilities for inpatients has greatly improved. Laboratory and imaging services have been updated. Modern facilities for eye and dental surgery are available. Attendance in outpatient department and especially in satellite clinics is increasing. Postgraduate training in psychiatry, clinical psychology, psychiatric social work and psychiatric nursing has started and research is once again a priority.

The history of the mental hospital in Delhi is a fascinating story. Set up in colonial times, the asylum in Delhi seems to reflect the tumultuous and chaotic history of the city itself. It was perhaps established in the early 19^th century, and functions till 1857, when it is ransacked in the Mutiny. It is subsequently merged with the asylum at Lahore in 1861, set up again, and incredibly, closed again at the turn of the century. Subject to the whims of administrators and policy makers, the asylum then ceases to exist till the 1960s when a new avatar appears. In it's non continuity is the story of the neglect of mental illness.

Delhi hasn't always enjoyed the status of the India's capital, but it has always played a pivotal role in the history of India as a gateway city. The same way, it received mental health services much later than the rest part of country, but it has witnessed an evolution from colonial era to the birth of state of art modern psychiatry services. Journey started with the landmark inaugural meeting in Delhi University of few visionaries paving the birth of Indian psychiatry society. Subsequently, it witnessed emergence of general hospital psychiatry units & saw their transformation to apex institutes of teaching and research like AIIMS and others. It saw an exemplary worth replicating transformation of hospital for mental diseases into the state of art neuropsychiatry center, IHBAS. Delhi of today represents a microcosm of psychiatry institutes offering entire range of therapeutic, rehabilitative and academic services with equally important share in policy making at national level. This article traces the trends and developments that happened in mental health services in last six decades.

Since 1979, consistent and untiring efforts of Dr. D.R. Purohit, Dr. Mahaveer Chand Jain and Dr. G. D. Koolwal against the odds have brought remarkable changes in the Psychiatric centre, Jodhpur.

Through the behavioral descriptions in age-old texts it is obvious that Mental Health problems exist since the existence of Homo Sapiens and humanity, with ever changing norms, contexts, definitions and hence their management. Gujarat state of India is one of the oldest land plateaus existing. It has been inhabited, ruled and governed by many different people, races, kings; and invaded through its longest sea-coast by Dutch, Portuguese, British. Even after freedom of India in 1947, Gujarat emerged as a separate state in 1960 only. The history of Mental Health, before being a separate state, could be summed up in 2 Mental Hospitals started by British governance and 2 very unique institutions. Post NMHP, there has been a tremendous growth in the sector, supported by many leaders in the governance. This is an attempt to review some documented and some gathered information from dependable sources, from pre-independence colonial era, post-independence and post-statehood contemporary period.

Organized delivery of mental health services in Goa had its origin during the Portuguese regime. From the inception of a mental asylum in the 1500s, mental health services have come a long way. In post liberation period, after 1961, under the guidance of a WHO Consultant, Dr. Govindaswamy, a new mental hospital was built at Panaji, Goa and it was named as the Abbe de Faria Institute. The Department of Psychiatry in Goa Medical College was established in 1968, and unlike in most parts of the country, where Psychiatry was a part of Medicine; here in Goa, it enjoyed an independent departmental status. With the merger of Department of Psychiatry with the mental hospital, an independent Institute of Psychiatry and Human Behavior emerged in 1980, a status it continues to retain till date. In 2016, the Institute of Psychiatry and Human Behavior has been identified to become a “Centre of Excellence” by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India.

Mental hospitals are an integral part of mental health services in India. It is an interesting story how mental hospitals have responded to the challenges of contemporary period they were built in. It is beyond doubt that it is a progressive journey along with advances in mental health both in India and internationally. As in other countries, mental hospitals in India have responded to the social challenges, disparities, and poor resources of workforce and fiscal investment. Historically, there have been changes and three major reforms are needed, namely attempt to facilitate discharge and placing patients back into the family, introducing teaching and research in mental hospitals, and accountability to civil rights as per the requirements of the National Human Rights Commission. In this review, we explore the brief history of mental hospitals in India and examine the reforms in the clinical, administrative, and psychosocial areas of these hospitals and progress in teaching and research. We finally summarize and conclude the necessity and the relevance of mental hospitals in India akin to modern psychiatric practice. We believe that mental hospitals have an important and perhaps a central role in mental health services in India. Its modernization to address issues of long-term stay, burden on caregivers, stigma, research and teaching including undergraduate and postgraduate training, new curriculum, and training for nonpsychiatric professionals and primary care physicians are necessary components of the role of mental hospitals and responsibilities of both government and nongovernmental sectors. Last but not the least, it is obligatory for mental hospitals to ensure that evidence-based treatments are implemented and that the standard of care and respect of civil and human rights of the patients and families are provided while involving the people's participation in its functioning.

Until recently, the role of patient work in the history of psychiatry has been a neglected dimension. Yet, in the psychiatric institutions that emerged across the world from the late eighteenth century onwards, work and work therapy were prominent features, culminating in the rise of a specialist profession affiliated to medicine – occupational therapy. This article explores the changing meanings of work within varied medical, social, and political contexts.

Mental illness and mental health are concepts that have existed from time immemorial. In India, the Atharvaveda and Vedic texts and traditional medical systems such as Siddha, Unani, and Ayurveda have described mental health and disorders, in detail. The advent of the mental hospital brought in the 'chemical revolution' in psychiatric management. The early nineties witnessed the birth of psychiatric rehabilitation in India. These developments saw a shift from a biological to a biopsychosocial model. It embraced the individual, family, community and society into the treatment process. The present rehabilitation process is geared towards providing quality of life, community living, accessible and suitable care.

Background: General hospital psychiatry units (GHPUs) are the major providers of mental health services in India. Unlike in high-income countries, GHPUs in India are also the main training centers for providing postgraduate training in psychiatry and allied disciplines. Aim: This paper traces the history of the GHPUs in India from beginning to the present. Material and Methods: PubMed, old issues of the Indian Journal of Psychiatry and related sources were searched with key words general hospital and psychiatry both electronically and manually to look for the related literature. Results: The history of the development of GHPUs is discussed under 3 phases: beginning to the preindependence period, independence to the year of the launch of the National Mental Health Programme of India, and afterward. Contributions of the GHPUs towards service development, teaching, research, community awareness and reducing stigma, and their future scope are discussed. Conclusion: GHPUs have been a revolutionary development in India with great contribution in the field of mental heath

Child and adolescent psychiatry has not been considered as an established field until the early 1900s till first such unit was started by Leo Kanner in 1930. In India, the first child guidance clinic was founded in 1938 in Mumbai by Dr. Clifford Manshardt. The child and adolescent Psychiatry unit at Central institute of Psychiatry has been into existence for the last 55 years and since then it has been an integral part of the institute in providing high-quality patient care, promoting substantial growth in research, and imparting education to the post graduate trainees and scholars in the field of child psychiatry. The journey embarked by it has been a phenomenal one and many laurels have already been achieved so far.

Prior to the advent of the Wasserman Test as a diagnostic tool for Syphilis, the identification rate for Syphilis at the Mysore Government Mental Hospital in Southern India was 1%. With the introduction of the test, there was a dramatic increase in the diagnosis of Syphilis, with 17% of the patients testing positive. This paper throws light on the early notions of Syphilis and GPI, societal responses to the disease, early misdiagnosis, the advent of the Wasserman test and treatment management as reflected in the records of the early 20th century at the Mysore Government Mental Hospital (currently known as NIMHANS).

Specialists in psychiatry, in the Indian sub-continent, were trained in the UK in the early 20th century. Just before Independence, an Indian branch of the Royal Medical Psychological Association was established. Many issues of contemporary concern were discussed, as also plans for the further development of psychiatry in the region. Soon after the Second World War, and the Independence of India, the association was disbanded. However, a large number of psychiatrists from south Asia now live and work in the UK, and the Indian Psychiatric society and the Royal College continue to have close links.

A fictional journey was planned and carried out in a time machine, to know and understand the glorious past of Central Institute of Psychiatry (CIP), Ranchi. As Dr. Anand, the protagonist, went through different periods in the history of CIP, he narrated his experiences while meeting different peoples in different clinical settings. In this journey, he met Lt. Col Berkeley-Hill at European Mental Hospital, as it was in the 1930s. He tried to understand the relevance of Professor Mapother's report and its essence in relation to European and Indian psychiatric scenario during inter-war period, the significance of Moore-Taylor's report, and the direction of psychiatric training and teaching during postindependence era under Major RB Davis as the superintendent of Hospital for Mental Diseases (HMD). Here, Dr. Anand met the great rebel poet of Bengal (and the national poet of Bangladesh later), Kazi Nazrul Islam, who was here for a short period, before being shifted to Europe for further treatment. Dr. Anand also met other superintendents/directors of CIP during postindependence period and tried to understand the significance of those periods in the total journey of CIP till today. The journey started in the present and went back in time. Finally, a brief comparative analysis has been made regarding the status of CIP vis-à -vis other important psychiatric institutes/hospitals in the past and present.