Professor NN Wig who was the first psychiatrist to focus on the understanding of course of mental disorders in India and established the department of psychiatry at the PGI in 1963 passed away on Friday. He served at the PGI as emeritus professor till date.
Prof Wig died in the PGI after a brief illness in the hospital. He was 87 years old. He was born on October 1, 1930, in the West Punjab district of
Gujranwala.
Prof Wig completed his MBBS from KG Medical College, Lucknow, in 1953 and MD Medicine from Lucknow University in 1957. He pursued his interest in psychiatry by training at the NIMHANS, Bengaluru. On his return, he joined the Medical College at Lucknow as a lecturer in
neuropsychiatry. It is here that he started the first general hospital psychiatry unit in India.
For two years (1961-62) he was on a
Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship and received training at the
Maudsley Hospital, Institute of Psychiatry, London and the Western Psychiatric Institute, Pittsburgh, U.S. He completed the Diploma in Psychological Medicine both from England and
Scotland during this period.
Professor NN Wig
