Background of the study: A mental disorder, also called a mental illness or psychiatric disorder, is a behavioral or mental pattern that causes significant distress or impairment of personal functioning. Such features may be persistent, relapsing and remitting, or occur as a single episode. Many disorders have been described, with signs and symptoms that vary widely between specific disorders. Such disorders may be diagnosed by a mental health professional. Mental and behavioral disorders are present at any point in time in about 10% of the adult population worldwide. The burden of mental disorders is maximal in young adults, the most productive section of the population. Neuropsychiatry conditions together account for 10.96% of the global burden of disease as measured by disability-adjusted life years (DALYs). Projections estimate that by the year 2020, neuropsychiatric conditions will account for 15% of disabilities worldwide, with unipolar depression alone accounting for 5.7% of DALYs and will stand second in top 10 leading causes of disability. Families also incur social costs, such as the emotional burden of looking after disabled family members, diminished quality of life for careers, social exclusion, stigmatization, and loss of future opportunities for self-improvement. This burden emphasizes the need of scientific studies in various aspects of mental disorders. Objective of the study: To assess the myths, beliefs and perceptions about mental disorders among paramedical students. To develop an information booklet on mental disorder. To associate the values of myths, beliefs and perceptions about mental disorder with the paramedical students’ demographic variables. Methods: The study involved quantitative approach and non-experimental descriptive design with non-probability convenient sampling technique. To collect the data from respondents, questionnaire on myths, beliefs and perception was administered to 50 paramedical students following inclusion and exclusion criteria. The tool consisted 30 items. The results were described by using descriptive and inferential statistics. Result: Maximum 44% of the paramedical students had moderate satisfaction level of myths, beliefs and perceptions about mental disorders, 38% were having unsatisfactory level and 18% were satisfactory level on myths, beliefs and perceptions about mental disorders. There is a significant association between myths, beliefs and perceptions scores and age, religion and family members mental disorder, as the chi-square value are higher than the tabulated value. Therefore, the H1 is accepted and the null hypothesis is rejected.

Keywords: Myths; Believes; Perceptions; Mental disorder and paramedical students.