The word "cured" is seldom or never used for a patient following a psychiatric illness and the term "mentally fit" is rarely considered appropriate. Unlike patients with organic lesions, the judgement of whose medical status is supported by laboratory investigations; in the case of mentally ill patients, biological changes may not be substantially reflected by investigations. Every human being has a tendency to succumb to mental illness and the spectrum of mental illnesses is divided into sanity and insanity by a thin line. This line is almost unique to an individual and depends on factors such as culture, education, genetic make-up and family upbringing.
To make a prompt judgment of the status of a person's mental illness. the psychiatrist should ideally make a longitudinal assessment of the records and reports which the patient has or the hospital concerned maintains. In the…
