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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 January 2018
The concern for the mental health of people living in low-resource and industrially developing countries has been blown out of proportion. Economic well-being, as a psychological factor, has a complex association with mental health and may prove to be good or bad for it; after all, mental health in low- and middle-income countries (even with few psychiatrists!) is generally better than it is in high-income countries. Government funding may be low but there are innumerable socio-cultural resources, many more than in most high-income countries. The number of psychiatrists per population may be low but numerous (informal and alternative) mental health services exist, many more popular and even more effective than psychiatry. The healthcare systems are so different that, whereas the average waiting period for a psychiatric patient in the UK may be about 90 days, it is about 90 minutes in India (and all patients are seen the same day). In fact, less than 10% of mental health problems are seen by psychiatrists!
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