Intellectual disability was recognised in ancient Indian literature, but organised services have a history of just five decades. India shares many features of low- and middle-income (LAMI) countries regarding intellectual disability. There is a low level of awareness about its nature, causes and interventions. One can come across many superstitions, myths and misconceptions about intellectual disability. In general, services are inadequate, being concentrated in big cities and urban areas. There is generally limited access to support services and few government benefits, and these, in any case, are often of little value (World Health Organization, 2007). Locally and nationally, there are few relevant and reliable epidemiological data on the prevalence of intellectual disability. However, there have been some positive developments within the past three decades, and they are the focus of this paper.

In the Islamic Republic of Pakistan the law relating to people who are mentally ill, until 2001, was set out by the Lunacy Act of 1912, which was inherited from the British colonial occupiers. In 2001 the Mental Health Ordinance 2001 took its place but only for this federal law to be superseded in April 2010 with the 18th constitutional amendment. As part of that amendment, provinces have become responsible for (psychiatric) healthcare, including mental health legislation. Forensic psychiatry is practised in Pakistan but is very much in its infancy; it needs to develop and learn from more experienced countries in Europe and North America. Cultural factors and misconceptions arising from religion can at times contribute to, or create, barriers to the implementation of forensic psychiatric services in Pakistan. This paper reviews the current state of forensic psychiatric services in Pakistan and is intended to open the debate on the challenges ahead.

Under the circumstances of the current COVID-19 pandemic, videoconferencing applications (apps) have come into the mainstream across the world. Owing to their easy availability and cost-effectiveness, they are used in personal as well as professional lives to communicate. They have been very helpful for students and professionals to ensure that their routine work did not halt when various countries imposed lockdown rules restricting travel, social gatherings and other measures that resulted in reduced in-person meetings. However, they have their own set of disadvantages, aptly called ‘Zoom gloom/fatigue’, named after a popular videoconferencing platform. Users are also noted to have anxiety while using these apps. Therefore, immediate attention is warranted to ensure cautious usage and to reduce the distress associated with videoconferencing apps while maintaining the obvious advantages that these methods have rapidly spread all over the world.

Bosnia and Herzegovina (BH) is located on the western part of the Balkan Peninsula. It has an area of 51 210 km2 and a population of 3 972 000. According to the Dayton Agreement of November 1995, which ended the 1992-95 war, BH comprises two ‘entities’ - the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBH) and the Republic of Srpska (RS) - and the District of Brcko. The administrative arrangements for the management and financing of mental health services reflect this. The FBH, with 2 325 018 residents, is a federation of 10 cantons, which have equal rights and responsibilities. The RS has 1 487 785 residents and, in contrast, a centralised administration. Brcko District has just under 80 000 residents.

Mental health legislation protects the rights of people with mental illnesses. However, despite major social, political and cultural changes, Sri Lankan mental health services still operate on laws enacted mostly during the British rule more than a century ago, in the pre-psychotropics era, and focusing more on the detention of people with mental illnesses than on their treatment. It is high time all stakeholders made efforts for the much-awaited new Mental Health Act to pass through parliament urgently to meet the needs and protect the rights of patients, their caregivers and service providers.

An understanding of the current state of mental health services in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) from a clinical perspective is an important step in advising government and stakeholders on addressing the mental health needs of the fast-growing population. We conducted a retrospective study of data on all patients admitted to a regional psychiatric in-patient unit between June 2012 and May 2015. More Emiratis (UAE nationals) were admitted compared with expatriates. Emiratis were diagnosed more frequently with substance use disorders and expatriates with stress-related conditions. Psychotic and bipolar disorders were the most common causes for admission and had the longest in-patient stays; advancing age was associated with longer duration of in-patient stay.

Right from the start of our international recruitment campaign the Department of Health was determined to ensure that international recruitment takes place using a planned and managed approach. Now, the UK leads the way in developing and implementing the types of international recruitment policies called for by the World Health Assembly.

Although training in psychotherapy is an integral part of psychiatry training, standards in psychotherapy training have wide variation across and within countries. Post-graduate psychiatry training has been conducted in Nepal for over two decades, but little is known about its psychotherapy training provisions. An online survey was conducted with early career psychiatrists in Nepal. The findings show that the majority recognised psychotherapy training as important and were eager to pursue further training. However, two-thirds had no access to psychotherapy training opportunities. These results highlight the need to improve access to training in different psychotherapy modalities in Nepal.

This article summarises current knowledge about two aspects of family care for people with mental illness: potentially pressurising or coercive aspects of family life; and family carers' experiences of being involved in coercive service interventions. There is a paucity of studies on these topics, especially outside Europe, North America and Australasia, and further research is recommended.

Publications on mental health were collected using PubMed and PsychINFO for 21 Arab countries. The data were then categorised according to the first author's country of affiliation, the year of publication, the topic of research and the type of journal. In 2006–12, the Arab world published 1029 articles (an average of 147 per year). The estimated increase in yearly productivity during this period was about 25% over the 7 preceding years. When considering the research output per million population, Kuwait, Bahrain and Lebanon were the top three producers, as they had been over the preceding four decades. After adjusting for gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, the five top producers were Egypt, Jordan, Tunisia, Lebanon and Morocco. Based on child and adolescent mental health research only, the Arab world's productivity was around one-sixth that of the United States and Europe.

The oil-rich member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) attract large numbers of migrant workers. The reported rates of psychiatric morbidity among these migrant workers are higher than among nationals, while the mental health services in the GCC countries remain inadequate in terms of both staff and service delivery. The multi-ethnic origin of migrants poses considerable challenges in this respect. The development of mental illness in migrants, especially when many of them remain untreated or inadequately treated, results in their premature repatriation, and the mentally ill migrant ends up facing the same economic hardships which led to migration in the first place. The availability of trained interpreters and transcultural psychiatrists, psychologists and social workers should make psychiatric diagnoses more accurate. Suitable rehabilitation services are also needed.

International medical graduates provide a valuable service to the healthcare of their adopted countries. However, there remain a significant number of challenges in their adjustment and acculturation in the post-migration phase. We believe that the cultural capital these doctors bring with them can act as a support as well as a challenge. They are likely to face subtle and not-so-subtle, covert and overt discrimination at a number of levels. In this brief report, we highlight some of the issues faced by them and some potential solutions.

This is a reflective essay about the time I spent volunteering in mental healthcare in Malawi, prior to commencing my psychiatry training. The burden of illness I saw was enormous and the resources very limited; however, I describe some particular experiences where we were able to deliver excellent care, and which made me reflect about mental health services in low-income countries in general. Details of the patients discussed in this essay have been fully anonymised.

People were not well prepared for the psychological aftermath of the earthquake in Nepal in April 2015. A higher rate of mental disorder was noted in the ensuing months and there was a need to develop psychosocial interventions, especially for those with poor mental health literacy. Acceptable, affordable and accessible mental health awareness programmes were required. Through examples of strategies adopted by the author, this article asserts that the aftermath of natural disasters can give mental health professionals opportunities to improve mental health literacy.

There are two federal laws in the UAE from 1981 that are specific to people with mental illnesses and disabilities. Efforts are presently being made to develop other laws addressing the protection of the vulnerable population, including women, children and the elderly. A new updated Mental Health Act is needed to keep in line with the UAE's major leaps achieved in healthcare.

This study compared beliefs about and attitudes to mental illness among medical and nursing students at two teaching hospitals in Nigeria with very different levels of psychiatric instructional capacity. Factor analysis of responses to a 43-item self-report questionnaire identified three domains: social acceptance of people with mental illness; belief in non-superstitious causation of mental illness; and stress, trauma and poverty as external causes of mental illness, with entitlement to employment rights. Students at the hospital with a larger, functioning psychiatry department had significantly higher scores on all three factors. Culturally enshrined beliefs and attitudes about mental illness are not uncommon among medical trainees. The availability of psychiatric education and services may have a positive effect on beliefs and attitudes.

Suicide among Muslims and in Muslim countries is rare (Hocaoglu et al, 2007). Although much of the research has comprised simple descriptive studies, and despite the possible underreporting of suicidal behaviour in countries where such behaviour is illegal, suicide rates do appear to be lower among Muslims than among the followers of other religions, even in countries which have populations belonging to several religious groups (Lester, 2006). However, rates of attempted suicide do not appear to be lower in Muslims than in non-Muslims (Pritchard & Amanullah, 2007), possibly because although there are strong religious sanctions against suicide, there are no clear principles regarding attempted suicide.

Serbia is located on the Balkan peninsula, which served for centuries as a vulnerable crossroads between the East and the West. At the beginning of the 1990s, some of the republics of the former Yugoslavia, including Serbia, were involved in disastrous civil conflicts. In 2006 Serbia became a sovereign republic. At the 2002 census, its population was 7 498 000.

The Gaza Strip has been badly affected by war and conflict over the past four decades. Palestinians are exposed to repeated incursions of the border areas, with many resulting casualties. At the end of December 2008, more than 230 Palestinians were killed and at least 770 were injured, including 100 in critical condition, after an Israeli airstrike. This was followed by a military operation that continued for 23 days, in which 1420 Palestinians, including 446 children, were killed. At least 4000 houses were totally destroyed and 16000 partially damaged (Palestinian Red Crescent, 2008).

New Zealand has an established history of mental health legislation that sits within a framework of human rights, disability and constitutional protections. We outline a brief history of mental health legislation in New Zealand since its inception as a modern state in 1840. The current legislation, the Mental Health (Compulsory Assessment and Treatment) Act 1992, defines mental disorder and the threshold for compulsory treatment. We describe its use in clinical practice and the wider legal and constitutional context which psychiatrists need to be aware of in their relationships with patients.