Presidential race bad for mentally ill people: experts

The fierce battle for the presidency appears to be all-consuming for some individuals, particularly those suffering from mental disorders, a psychiatrist said earlier this week.

Liu Chung-hsien (劉宗憲), who specializes in community psychiatric medicine at Taipei City Hospital, made the argument on Wednesday, citing the case of a woman who has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

Liu said the woman showed up at the outpatient waiting room at the hospital's Songde branch recently in full campaign mode.

"She was dressed in green, wore green eye shadow, which made her stand out among the other patients, and kept chanting `elected,'" Liu said.

Green is the campaign color of the Democratic Progressive Party and its presidential pairing of Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) and Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌).

Liu also said that some patients, who are die-hard supporters of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), had complained of insomnia and loss of appetite over concerns that the party's presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) might not win.

He said that psychiatrists at other hospitals in Taipei had told him of cases of patients who were on the verge of a nervous breakdown because of election-related anxiety or stress.

"Some of the patients have actively solicited votes among the doctors and nurses in the hospital hallways," Liu said, adding that DPP and KMT supporters had also been seen in hospital waiting rooms.

Liu said that people with affective disorder tend to fall prey to anxiety more easily if they become obsessed with election campaigns.

Hsieh Juie-kun (謝瑞坤), head of the oncology department at Taipei's Mackay Memorial Hospital, also said that many patients had recently requested permission to leave the hospital, saying they were determined to exercise their right to vote for a new president even though they did not feel well.