Department of Psychiatry, International Medical Corps Iraq, Hai AlWahda, Mahla M904, Baghdad, Iraq.
Department of Adult Psychiatry, Leicestershire Mental Health Trust, Westcotes House, Westcotes Drive, Leicester, UK.
Int J Ment Health Syst. 2010 Oct 11;4:26. doi: 10.1186/1752-4458-4-26.
People who suffer from mental illness, the professionals who treat them, and indeed the actual concept of mental illness are all stigmatised in public perception and often receive very negative publicity. This paper looks at Iraq, which has a population of 30 million who are mainly Moslem. Mental health services and professionals have historically been sparse in Iraq with 1 psychiatrist per 300,000 before 2003 falling to 1 per million until recently and 1 primary care centre (40 Healthcare Workers including 4 General Practitioners) to 35,000 population, compared with 1 GP per 1700 population in the UK.
We aimed to assess public attitudes and perceptions to mental illness. Participants were asked to complete a questionnaire (additional file 1), which was designed specifically for Iraqi contexts and was made available in 2 languages. The survey was carried out in 500 participants' homes across 2 districts of Baghdad.
The response rate of the survey was 86.4%. The paper shows respondents views on the aetiology of mental illness, perceptions of people with mental illness and attitudes towards care and treatment of people with mental illness.
This survey of public attitudes towards mental illness in Iraq has shown that community opinion about the aetiology of mental illness is broadly compatible with scientific evidence, but understanding of the nature of mental illness, its implications for social participation and management remains negative in general.
在公众认知中，患有精神疾病的人、治疗他们的专业人员，甚至是精神疾病的概念本身都受到了污名化，经常受到非常负面的宣传。本文以伊拉克为例，伊拉克拥有 3000 万人口，主要是穆斯林。在 2003 年之前，伊拉克的精神卫生服务和专业人员历来稀少，每 30 万人中只有 1 名精神病医生，到最近降至每百万人 1 名，而每 35000 名居民才有 1 个初级保健中心（包括 4 名全科医生在内的 40 名卫生工作者），而英国每 1700 名居民就有 1 名全科医生。
我们旨在评估公众对精神疾病的态度和看法。参与者被要求填写一份问卷（附加文件 1），该问卷是专门为伊拉克的情况设计的，有两种语言可供选择。该调查在巴格达的两个区的 500 名参与者的家中进行。
该调查的回复率为 86.4%。本文展示了受访者对精神疾病病因的看法、对精神疾病患者的看法以及对精神疾病患者护理和治疗的态度。
这项对伊拉克公众对精神疾病态度的调查表明，社区对精神疾病病因的看法在很大程度上与科学证据相符，但对精神疾病的性质、对社会参与和管理的影响的理解总体上仍然是负面的。
