Mental health in the Middle East

Abstract

AbstractPsychiatry is the branch of medicine that most prominently incorporates the humanities and social sciences in its scientific base and in its treatment of illness. It also attempts to explain the full range of human behaviour, including behaviour associated with mental illness. Psychiatry has often needed to go well beyond the world of natural science into the philosophical realm. Mental health providers in developed countries are increasingly treating patients whose backgrounds are much different from their own, so it is important for them to understand cultural belief systems, including religious thought and practice, and social norms within the society that relate to mental health and illness. The understanding and interpretation of many psychiatric symptomatology by both patients and their relatives can depend greatly on their upbringing, education, and society.