Mental health and conflict in the Middle East

Abstract

For the past decade, overt unrest and danger have typified daily life for many families in Iraq and Afghanistan, while in Egypt under the former regime a superficial appearance of political stability lay over a sense of deep discontentment. What impact does living in those circumstances have on mental health? We asked psychiatrists with personal knowledge of events in three countries that have recently been riven by war and revolution to discuss their experiences. Because so few objective data are available on the impact of stress in any of the three regions reviewed, the authors have inevitably relied in large part upon anecdote and upon news reports from the internet.