Coercion has always been integral to the care and treatment of people who are mentally ill and there is no ‘perfect’ model in which coercion is absent. A number of interventions have shown promise in reducing the use of coercion, however, and we believe the evidence points to ways forward that may improve both the experience and the outcome of care.

The 2013 report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has caused renewed concern among both clinicians and health policy makers. Climate change is continuing at an increasing rate. This guest editorial describes how climate change might affect global mental health and proposes three things that psychiatrists from every country could implement to respond appropriately to this urgent and severe global threat. These responses are mitigation and adaptation strategies for mental health services, and the integration of sustainability into training.

Common human questions include ‘Why are we here?’ and ‘How should we live?’ The search for meaning, purpose and values is fundamental to most religions and philosophies. In the UK these views used to be derived from a shared Judaeo-Christian faith. People defined themselves as accepting or rebelling against the faith community. In postmodern times we no longer trust in meta-narrative and there is no consensus on how to deal with existential issues, nor on how to label and map the territory; some would deny that the territory even exists.

During the past 30 years the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has developed an extensive hospital-based mental health system culminating in the passing of a mental health law in 2014. This legislation embodies many of the international standards promoted by the World Health Organization. However, the mechanisms for protecting the human rights of psychiatric patients are neither sufficiently independent nor adequately robust.

Bangladesh is a densely populated emerging country in South Asia. Since its harsh independence war, it has suffered from repeated floods and other natural and man-inflicted disasters. Internal migration from rural areas to the urban centres has increased crowdedness, pollution and social conflicts. Furthermore, in recent years, the country has absorbed close to a million refugees from Myanmar. These stressors have been associated with an increase in mental disorders and symptoms with which the country is struggling. Lack of resources and a shortage of human capital have weakened the national capacity to efficiently respond to situational stressors or disasters. For assessment of stress-related mental health issues, information available from the Ministry of Health and the National Institute of Mental Health was collected and supplemented by external reports. It is promising that the government's approach of responding to mental health needs only after the occurrence of a crisis has recently been replaced by the concept of total management through primary healthcare. There is a need for development of adequate infrastructure, logistics and workforce support, as well as establishment of multidisciplinary teams of management and clinical services. Collaboration of all related sectors of the government and an overall increase in government funding for mental health are essential.

When prolonged social withdrawal was first described in Japan as ‘hikikomori’, many studies examining its etiology suggested it to be related to factors unique to Japan and thus a culture-bound syndrome. However, existing research has suffered from a lack of standardised definitions, impeding comparability between studies. We summarise existing research and discuss its relevance to psychiatric practice today.

Gambling, legal and illegal, is popular in Nigeria. Lack of stringent regulation and enforcement, coupled with the rise in online gambling opportunities, has resulted in increased gambling-related harm. There needs to be a multipronged public health strategy to address the harms of gambling and for this the government, gambling industry, policy makers and academic experts need to engage in a meaningful debate.

In Qatar between 2008 and 2011, strategic developments at governmental level were beginning to reflect a more positive understanding of mental health. Under the leadership of the Ministry of Public Health, key stakeholders agreed to develop a strategy to reform the mental health system, while tackling stigma. This article discusses the development of the National Mental Health Strategy for Qatar, Changing Minds, Changing Lives, 2013–18, its implementation, and the findings from an independent impact evaluation carried out in 2015.

Zimbabwe is a landlocked country which has recently emerged from some marked political and socio-economic challenges. Against this background, mental health has fallen down the priority list, as matters such as food shortages and the AIDS scourge have taken prece dence. Zimbabwe is in southern Africa; Zambia and Botswana lie to the north, Namibia to the west, South Africa to the south and Mozambique to the east. Its population is 11.4 million. The capital city is Harare, which has a population of 1.6 million.

With rapid growth and development in recent decades, the State of Qatar has been redefining strategies and policies towards building a world-class healthcare system. Mental health has emerged as a priority area for development. As a result, mental health services in the region are being redefined and expanded, and this was realised with the launching of the ambitious National Mental Health Strategy in 2013. Traditionally, mental healthcare in Qatar had been considered to be the remit of psychiatrists within secondary care. The new strategy supported the transition towards community-based care. It outlined a plan to design and build a comprehensive and integrated mental health system, offering treatment in a range of settings. In this article, we provide an overview of the advent of primary care mental health services in Qatar. We discuss the historical aspects of psychiatric care and development of primary care mental health services in Qatar.

Maternal mental health disorders are a significant problem for mother–infant dyads in India, but have not received the attention that they should. However, recent major developments hold promise: the increase in coverage of the District Mental Health Programme; the growing emphasis in public health systems on newborn health; integration of maternal mental health into the Reproductive and Child Health Programme in the state of Kerala; and the Mental Health Care Act 2017, which mandates mother–infant joint care when a mother is admitted for mental illness, will lead to policy changes in services. Innovative implementation and translational research is needed to generate knowledge to strengthen maternal mental healthcare systems and improve maternal and child outcomes. Valuable ‘research rupees’ should be spent on ensuring equity of resources for physical and mental healthcare of mothers and providing optimal environments for every mother–infant dyad.

Malawi is a country in sub-Saharan Africa bordering Mozambique, Tanzania and Zambia. It has an area of approximately 118000 km2 and is divided into northern, central and southern regions. It has an estimated population of 13 million, 47% of whom are under 15 years of age and just 5% over 60 years. Its economy is largely based on agriculture, with tobacco being the main export. The projected growth in gross domestic product (GDP) for 2007 was 8.8%; GDP per capita was $284 per annum.

The 2005 General Assembly of the World Psychiatric Association (WPA) established the Institutional Program on Psychiatry for the Person (IPPP) in response both to a recognition of our profession's historical aspirations and to recent international developments in clinical care and public health. These considerations point to the relevance of a comprehensive understanding of health and the centrality of the person in the delivery and the planning of healthcare. The IPPP's goals can be summarised as the promotion of a psychiatry of the person (of the totality of the person's health, both ill and positive), by the person (with clinicians extending themselves as full human beings), for the person (assisting the fulfilment of the person's life project) and with the person (in respectful collaboration with the person who consults). Operationally, the IPPP has four components: conceptual bases, clinical diagnosis, clinical care, and public health. What follows is an initial review of the IPPP's conceptual bases and an outline of its emerging activities.

Since 2009, Greece has experienced a long-lasting socioeconomic crisis that has had substantial consequences on the health and mental health of the population. Unemployment, financial hardship and income loss constitute the hallmarks of the socioeconomic landscape. Consequently, a substantial decline in health and mental health has been documented. Converging evidence corroborates a deterioration of self-rated health, an alarming rise in suicide rates and a gradual increase in the prevalence of major depression. Concomitantly, the healthcare system is on the verge of collapse and the mental healthcare system is incapable of addressing the emerging needs. Therefore, a multifaceted and concerted effort is urgently needed to mitigate the mental health effects of the recession.

The history of psychiatry and homosexuality illuminates how stigma develops in the professions, how it is linked to cultural values and religious attitudes and how it affects patients. Homosexuality was medicalised as a disorder in the late 19th century and this led to treatments to change it. Same-gender contacts between men were decriminalised in many countries in the 1960s and 1970s, but – as recently as the 1980s – 30% of doctors in the USA did not think that gay students should be admitted to medical school and 40% would not allow gay doctors to specialise in paediatrics or psychiatry. Lesbians and gay men were effectively debarred from training in the main psychoanalytical schools in the USA and the UK. Although mainstream psychological treatments to make gay and bisexual people heterosexual fell into disrepute in the 1980s, so-called conversion or reparative treatments took their place and are still practised today. Transgender people have been the target of similar disapproval and attitudes towards them have been even slower to change than those towards lesbians and gay men. This stigma had consequences on the health, well-being and social inclusion of those who were lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT). This history suggests we need to examine where psychiatry and psychology are making similar mistakes today.

Iraq is known to be the cradle of civilisation — a country with a rich history. Present-day Iraq occupies the greater part of the ancient land of Mesopotamia, the plain between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers. Some of the world's greatest ancient civilisations arose in this area, and Iraq possesses a huge number of historical monuments and archaeological sites.

This paper begins by outlining the nature of the present conflict in Syria. It goes on to describe the psychological consequences of this conflict and the present state of the mental health services in the country.

To determine the rate of self-burning among all burns patients admitted to the Burns and Plastic Surgery Centre at Sulaimani University in Iraqi Kurdistan and to identify the risk factors and motives, all burns patients, aged 8 years and over, admitted between 1 September 2009 and 30 April 2010 were surveyed. Of the 200 patients interviewed, 54 (27%) reported self-burns and 146 (73%) reported accidental burns. The risk factors for self-burning included mental illness, female gender and younger age. Almost two-thirds of those who reported self-burns (32, 60.4%) had intended to kill themselves. The most commonly cited reasons for the act were family problems (24, 44%) and marital problems (13, 24%). Burns in the self-burning group were more severe and were associated with a higher mortality rate (34, 63%) than in the accidental burns group (29, 20%).

The People's Republic of Bangladesh is located in South Asia. The total land area of Bangladesh is 147570 km2. Its total population in 2001 was about 123 million. The population growth rate is 1.47%; of the total population, 75% live in rural areas and 25% in urban areas (Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, 2000).