Psychiatry in Iraq

¹ Consultant Psychiatrist, Shamma'eeyah Mental Hospital
² Lecturer in Psychology, College of Education, Baghdad, Iraq

This study is a survey of some aspects of psychiatry in Iraq, a Middle East country. An attempt has been made to describe the traditional concept of mental illness. Despite the evident influence of the Moslem religion, beliefs concerning mental illness are deeply rooted in the ancient history of Mesopotamia. It is observed that there is similarity between the incidence and classification of mental illness in Iraq and the West. Nevertheless, the manifestations of mental illness are somehow different, e.g. in depression. Furthermore it has been emphasized that in some cases (paranoid delusions, ideas of reference, hallucinations) the wholesale application of Western diagnostic criteria may be completely misleading.

Psychiatric services are mainly in Baghdad, the capital. There is only one mental hospital in the whole country (population 8 millions). There is another psychiatric clinic which is attached to a Teaching Hospital. The service of the 15 trained psychiatrists is divided between their private clinics and the Government. While private clinics give their service to the privileged few, the mental hospital remains an asylum for the unwanted outcasts. Insofar as the official and public attitude remains indifferent to the care of the mentally ill, it will be long before efficient modern psychiatric services can be envisaged in Iraq.

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