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Mental health in the Syrian Arab Republic

Part of: BJPsych International Country Profiles Collection

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Iyas Assalman ,
Mazen Alkhalil  and
Martin Curtice
Iyas Assalman
Affiliation:
West Midlands Deanery, UK, email [email protected]
Mazen Alkhalil
Affiliation:
Al-Basheer Hospital, Harasta, Damascus, Syria, email [email protected]
Martin Curtice
Affiliation:
Queen Elizabeth Psychiatric Hospital, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2QZ, UK, email [email protected]
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The following view was espoused in a 1903 Lancet editorial describing psychiatric services in the East: ‘The treatment of lunatics in the East has not yet fully emerged from the clouds of ignorance and barbarism which have surrounded it for ages.’ One of the first reformers was ‘Mr. Theophilus Waldmeier, a gentleman resident in Syria, who commenced in the spring of 1896 the work of helping and providing for the numerous sufferers from mental disease in Syria and Palestine.’ He attempted to introduce the methods of humanity and science in this field. In 1939 Bernstein described his visit to the Maristan Arghoum, a psychiatric hospital, in the city of Aleppo. He observed the complete lack of medical supervision, ‘bad’ patients being chained and the despotic rule of the ‘keeper’ of the hospital.

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Country profiles
Information
International Psychiatry , Volume 5 , Issue 3 , July 2008 , pp. 64 - 66
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Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists 2008

References

References and Sources

Bernstein, E. L. (1939) American Journal of Psychiatry, 95, 1415–1419.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lancet (1903) 17 January, p. 189.Google Scholar
Maziak, W., Asfar, T., Mzayek, F., et al (2002) Socio-demographic correlates of psychiatric morbidity among low-income women in Aleppo, Syria. Social Science and Medicine, 54, 1419–1427.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ministry of Health (2006) See http://www.moh.gov.sy Google Scholar
World Bank (2005) See http://www.worldbank.org Google Scholar
World Health Organization (2005) Syrian Arab Republic. In Mental Health Atlas 2005. See http://www.who.int/mental_health/evidence/atlas Google Scholar
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