Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2025 Mar;47(2):154-159.
doi: 10.1177/02537176241240022. Epub 2024 Apr 16.

Mapping the Geographic Inequalities in Psychiatrist Distribution across Madhya Pradesh, India: An Exploratory Study

Roshan Sutar  1 , Abhijit Pakhare  2 , Anuja Lahiri  2 , Yogesh Sabde  3 , Vijender Singh  1
Affiliations

Mapping the Geographic Inequalities in Psychiatrist Distribution across Madhya Pradesh, India: An Exploratory Study

Roshan Sutar et al. Indian J Psychol Med. 2025 Mar.

Abstract

Background: The National Mental Health Survey identified a vast treatment gap across India. This treatment gap is partly attributed to the availability and accessibility of mental health services in different states. Accessibility to a psychiatrist in Madhya Pradesh (MP) is essential due to the significant disparity among urban, rural, and tribal regions across the state. The study attempted to identify the geographical disparity of psychiatrists in MP to improve future mental health service delivery.

Methods: An online survey of practicing psychiatrists was conducted in December 2022 in the settings of public and private healthcare service delivery systems through offline and online accessibility/availability of psychiatrists practicing in MP, and the data were mapped using geo-locations of psychiatrists and were analyzed using ArcMap 10.8.1.

Results: In total, 152 psychiatrists were practicing in MP across 195 locations, which amounts to 0.21 psychiatrists per 100,000 population with a concentration around big cities. Out of 54 districts, 24 districts did not have any practicing psychiatrists. A total of 155 health facilities were identified across 30 (55.6%) districts where at least one psychiatrist provided mental health services. The nearest-neighbor index for 152 points was -13.69.

Conclusions: Combining psychiatrist geo-mapping data with population data comprehensively explains the MP state's mental health service delivery needs. It could be wise to improve the spatial distribution of psychiatrists in each district rather than achieving the recommended ratio of doctors to patients per state. These data need to be supplemented with qualitative inquiry to help policymakers and health planners generate effective public-private partnerships in mental health service delivery in the coming time.

Keywords: Community mental health; community psychiatry; psychiatrists; public mental health; service delivery; treatment gap.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, or publication of this article.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.. Spatial Distribution of Psychiatrists Practicing Locations Across the State.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.. Density of Psychiatrists per 100,000 Population.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.. Choropleth Map of the Density of Psychiatrists per 100,000 Population.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

References

    1. Chang AY, Skirbekk VF, Tyrovolas S, et al.. Measuring population ageing: An analysis of the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017. Lancet Public Health 2019; 4: e159–e167. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Government of India. Census tables. https://censusindia.gov.in/census.website/data/census-tables
    1. Gururaj G, Varghese M, Benegal V, et al.. National Mental Health Survey of India, 2015-16: Prevalence, patterns and outcomes. Bengaluru, National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences, NIMHANS Publication No. 129, 2016.
    1. Arvind BA, Gururaj G, Loganathan S, et al.. Prevalence and socioeconomic impact of depressive disorders in India: Multisite population-based cross-sectional study. BMJ Open, 2019; 9: e027250. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Kokane A, Pakhare A, Gururaj G. Mental health issues in Madhya Pradesh: Insights from National Mental Health Survey of India 2016. Healthcare (Basel: ) 2019; 7: E53–E53. - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources