The Department of Psychiatry was established in 1988 with Dr K N Srinivas as the Head of the Department. Initially, the department offered essential psychiatric services to needy patients with OPD-based treatment and consultation-liaison psychiatric services to the patients referred from other specialty departments.
In July 2001, Dr. Nagendran S took over the charge as Professor and HOD of the Department. During his twelve-year tenure, he started ECT (Electroconvulsive Therapy) for severely psychiatrically ill patients and psychometric assessments using standardized types of equipment. The department extended its facilities to Kolar OPD to bring the psychiatric services to the doorstep of the people of Kolar town. The department witnessed a tremendous flow of inpatients, and all the students/interns posted were exposed to many psychiatric ailments .
In February 2013, Dr. Mohan Reddy took over the responsibilities as the head of the department. During his tenure, he established a separate psychiatric ward with 15 beds. All acutely ill patients and other chronic schizophrenic patients were admitted and provided holistic care. Under his aegis, the department expanded further with an inpatient capacity of 30 beds. He started the Modified Electro Convulsive Therapy services and procured a computerized EEG machine to diagnose and treat all Epileptic disorders. He was instrumental in creating the specialty clinics like Child guidance clinics, Geriatric clinics, De-addiction services, Community psychiatric services.
Dr.S.N.Jagadish, Clinical Psychologist, started a separate Psychology unit providing counseling services for the students and actively conducting psychometric assessments for the needy patients in the department.
The department has begun the Postgraduate MD Psychiatry course with two seats per year from 2020.
