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Ideas & researchA body of thought, not just a list of papers.
A recurring question runs through Dr. Desai's writing: what is psychiatry's responsibility beyond diagnosis and treatment? His publications follow that question from the individual patient to families, institutions, communities, law and society.
Psychiatry & Society
What psychiatrists owe the public, and how the profession should respond to its critics.
Taking Psychiatry to the Public in the Third World
On extending psychiatric knowledge and care beyond hospitals to the communities that need it.
Responsibility of Psychiatrists: Need for Pragmatic Idealism
Holding high professional ideals while working within the realities of Indian health systems.
Antipsychiatry: Meeting the Challenge
A response to critiques of psychiatry, and what the profession can learn from them.
Public Mental Health & Systems
Mental health as a population concern — services, access and unmet need.
Public Mental Health: An Evolving Imperative
Indian Journal of Psychiatry, 2006. The case for mental health as a public-health priority.
Urban Mental Health Services in India: How Complete or Incomplete?
2004. Multicentre study from the WHO–ICMR Pilot Project on Urban Mental Health Services.
Mental health report, Indo-US Health Care Summit
International collaboration on priorities for mental-health care.
Science & Clinical Practice
How evidence and diagnosis should inform everyday psychiatric care.
Evidence-Based Practices in Mental Health
Bringing research evidence into routine clinical decisions.
Comorbidity in Psychiatry
When conditions occur together — implications for classification and treatment.
Disaster & Psychosocial Care
The psychological aftermath of disasters and how systems should respond.
National Disaster Management Guidelines: Psycho-Social Support and Mental Health Services in Disasters
National Disaster Management Authority, 2009. Dr. Desai coordinated the core group.
Mental-health morbidity after an urban slum fire in Delhi
ICMR-supported study of psychological effects on survivors.
Law, Rights & Institutions
Turning rights in law into services on the ground, and reforming public mental hospitals.
Implementation of the Mental Healthcare Act 2017
Indian Journal of Psychiatry, 2022. How services must be organised under the new legislation.
Reforming Mental Hospitals to Government Mental Health Institutions (GMHI): Indian Model
Book chapter on the history and reform of public mental-health institutions in India.
Substance Use
Treatment and prevention of tobacco, alcohol and drug use.
Initiating tobacco-cessation services in India
WHO South-East Asia Journal of Public Health. Co-authored.
This is a selection. A complete bibliography is in preparation. Links open a PubMed search for the title.