NIMHANS Launches World’s Largest Digital Mental Health Archive Dating to 1890s

The initiative is expected to be a major boost for clinical research, policy planning, and public health studies in mental health care.

Bengaluru’s National Institute of Mental Health and NeuroSciences (NIMHANS) has launched the world’s largest digital archive of patient records, featuring over 37,000 files dating back to the 1890s.

The NIMHANS Archiving Digital Initiative (NADI) was unveiled earlier this week at the institute’s Heritage Museum by Director Prof. Pratima Murthy.

“This monumental collection, comprising over 37,000 patient files, represents one of the largest historical archives in mental health and neurosciences globally,” NIMHANS said in a post on social media platform X.

The archive offers rare records of conditions ranging from schizophrenia and epilepsy to brain tumours, chronicling mental health care from the Mysore Lunatic Asylum era to the All India Institute of Mental Health (AIIMH) founded in 1954.

NIMHANS added, “This invaluable archive provides a rare glimpse into over a century of mental health and neuroscience history at our institution.”

The initiative is expected to be a major boost for clinical research, policy planning, and public health studies in mental health care.

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