Iraq needs treatment for rampant mental illness

Iraq needs treatment for rampant mental illnessAccording to health officials, the need for treatment of rampant mental illness in Iraq far outstrips resources in the war-ravaged country.

The Washington Post has reported that though the war has subsided and many American troops have pulled out, medical specialists say they're overwhelmed with mental health cases induced by war-related trauma.

Iraq's psychiatric association has said that the country of 30 million people has only 100 psychiatrists. Lack of care has led many with mental illness to abuse prescription drugs such as Artane, or trihexyphenidyl, which has a sedative effect.

Al-Rashad, a government funded mental health facility in Baghdad, and the only one in the country offering long-term care, has become overcrowded, with 10 percent more patients this year. Many are turned away.

The Post also said that mental illness often is linked to violence of military raids, interrogations, assassinations and bombings.

Iraq's health ministry, to address the crisis, has begun to offer psychiatric treatment at primary-care hospitals.

Naama Humaidi, general secretary of the psychiatric association, said, "The violence, aggression and turmoil in Iraq is directly connected to the increase in mental problems. There is an exceptional, threatening situation that cannot be understood by any other society. It made a thumbprint on each person in our country."

At Al-Rashad hospital, where eight doctors are responsible for 1,300 patients and there are no more available beds, about 80 percent of patients' families abandon the patients, often leaving them nowhere to go.

Bombings damaged her family's home three times in five years, destroyed their business and cost her husband his leg, Asmaa Shaker, one patient, told the Post that. One bombing spurred her mental illness, leaving her violent, and prompting her husband to take her to the hospital. (With Inputs from Agencies)