Activists demonstrate in New Delhi against the patents regime. (AFP)

New Delhi, March 21: For the 21-year-old engineering student in a north Indian town, the proposed changes in patent laws may mean a return to an existence damned by hallucinations and suicidal thoughts.

The student has schizophrenia but, with the help of medicines, he has managed to make it to the second year of his engineering course. Now, he fears the amendments to India?s patent laws may put a question mark on his future.

The youth represents a growing number of mentally ill patients in India whose families are worried that the amendments may worsen their plight and increase admissions to hospitals.

Doctors and health activists said the amendments under debate in Parliament this week could make drugs unaffordable to patients with HIV, cancer, and other illnesses, including mental disorders.

?The changes will mean slow torture for people with severe mental illnesses,? said Rukmini Pillai of Torchbearers, an advocacy group in New Delhi, who spent the weekend calling on MPs, handing out a four-page document on how the amendments may affect the mentally ill.

?Without inexpensive generic versions of new drugs, families won?t be able to take care of their loved ones. Many who live at home may need to be sent to institutions,? she said. The document predicts lack of access to new drugs would lead to ?disabled youth, decreased productivity and increased healthcare costs?.

Psychiatrists estimate that India has about 80 million people with severe, yet treatable psychiatric disorders. Many patients use medication to stay out of institutions.

Doctors say drugs introduced in recent years and new ones expected to come up soon for treating schizophrenia or severe depression have reduced side effects and allow patients to lead near-normal lives and stay economically productive.

?Superior drugs are in the pipeline,? said Dr Nimesh Desai, head of psychiatry at the Institute of Human Behaviour and Allied Sciences in New Delhi.

?Without such drugs, some patients may remain neglected at home or require hospital care,? he said.

The advocacy groups have cited price differences between patented drugs and generic versions available in the market. One patented drug used for schizophrenia is 90 times costlier than its generic version. Another, used for severe depression, costs 60 times higher than its Indian-made version.

The engineering student with schizophrenia is on therapy that costs less than Rs 1,000 a month. His family fears that patented drugs may drive the costs up to Rs 30,000 a month.

Torchbearers and the Bangalore-based Action for Mental Illness have urged MPs to revise the amendments to ensure that patients continue to get affordable medicines.

Doctors say research on psychiatric drugs is a prolonged and expensive affair.

?It is unlikely that Indian drug companies will be able to develop novel molecules in the near future,? said Dr Sunil Mittal, vice-president of the Indian Association of Private Psychiatry.

He said the association has been urging foreign drug companies to keep prices of new drugs low in India, keeping in view the large size of the market.

Under the World Trade Organisation?s Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights agreement, India is expected to change its laws to allow patents on drugs. This will prevent local industry from producing generic versions of patented drugs.