GLOBAL A snapshot of Iraqi psychiatry ECHOES Aws Sadik Core Psychiatry Trainee, Avon ‘Please admit my daughter.’ and Wiltshire Mental Health During a visit to Baghdad, I was able to visit Partnership NHS Trust, Bath, UK. several key centres in Iraqi psychiatry: the Email: [email protected] Although core principles are similar, service mod- Ministry of Health, Baghdad General Hospital, els differ considerably between the two nations. In Keywords. Transcultural psych- Ibn Rushd Hospital and Al Rashad Hospital. the UK, mental healthcare is mostly carried out iatry; low and middle income This was my first experience of mental countries; education and training. by general practitioners and community teams, healthcare outside England, and it left me both of which are essentially non-existent in First received 30 Jan 2020 with a range of discussions and experiences to Iraq. Instead, psychiatric services are limited to Accepted 2 Mar 2020 reflect on. I hope that this article offers a fair 34 out-patient clinics, 21 in-patient wards within flavour of Iraqi psychiatry from the doi:10.1192/bji.2020.19 general hospitals, and two Baghdad mental perspective of a UK-trained doctor. health hospitals. Iraq has approximately 100 psy- © The Author 2020. This is an chiatrists, so 0.34 per 100 000 population2 in com- Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative parison with 8 per 100 000 in the UK. This Commons Attribution licence disparity is of a higher ratio than that seen with (http://creativecommons.org/ ‘I feel like I am not really alive in this country. What kind licenses/by/4.0/), which permits of country is this? Endless violence, no jobs, no future. It physicians: 82 per 100 000 v. 280 per 100 000, unrestricted re-use, distribution, makes me depressed.’ respectively.3 Factors keeping numbers low and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is include stigma and a relative lack of the private properly cited. practice opportunities on which many of Iraq’s ’ In Al-Rashad Hospital s busy out-patient clinic, it doctors rely. fi was dif cult to determine whether this Family is central to mental healthcare in Iraq. 20-year-old gentleman was experiencing deper- Unwell relatives tend to be cared for at home, sonalisation or simply using powerful language without community health or social care support. in describing the state of the nation. In hospitals, in-patients often have relatives stay- The turmoil of Iraq’s recent history is well 1 ing overnight and assisting with nursing care. documented. At the time of my arrival, the Discharge tends to rely on the availability of a ’ potential fallout from Qasem Soleimani s assassin- family home. Those without family support are ation at Baghdad International Airport was present in larger proportions at the longer-stay awaited nervously. However, this was a country Al Rashad Hospital, where many will reside already on edge: our 20-year-old gentleman was until the end of their lives, as homelessness is wearing a forearm cast after being injured at the only available discharge destination. ’ Baghdad s Tahrir Square, the epicentre of Despite the quoted father’s desire to see admis- months of nationwide protests against corruption sion, this would need to occur voluntarily or via a and unemployment. Protests that had been court. The Iraq Mental Health Act 2005 is heavily responded to by the killing of unarmed protesters influenced by British Mental Health Acts, with and the promised resignation of the Prime similar provisions for compulsory admission by Minister. psychiatrists.4 However, these powers are not The primary purpose of my brief trip to used, for reasons including a lack of historical pre- Baghdad was catching up with family; however, cedent and security risks to clinicians. Instead, it also offered the opportunity to explore transcul- courts determine involuntary admission with the tural psychiatry. Thanks to the warm and welcom- support of expert psychiatric committees. ing National Advisor of Mental Health, Dr Emad ‘ ... Abdulrazaq, I was able to visit the psychiatric She was married at fourteen years old. The in-laws have banished her from their home, and she has not in-patient ward at Baghdad General Hospital, as been allowed to see her child for seven months now.’ well as Iraq’s only two mental health hospitals: the short-stay Ibn Rushd Hospital (50+ beds) Observance of the rights of women and girls is and the longer-stay Al-Rashad Hospital limited by international standards, and there is a (1200+ beds). risk of further backwards steps.5 Traumas such Over glasses of sweet tea, the leaders of these as the separation of a mother and baby can add units generously offered me insights into psych- to the psychological burden of wars and insecur- iatry in Iraq compared with the UK. Richness ity, and had possibly contributed to the seizures was then added to these insights through meeting that had brought this young mother to the clinic. out-patients at Al-Rashad Hospital. Pertinent, Stigma around mental illness was a major mostly paraphrased, quotes from those I met theme of my discussions and potentially also a fac- will provide the framework for this reflection. tor in this teenager’s heart-breaking story. ‘Faith Details of the patients discussed in this essay healers’ are often sought before a psychiatrist6 have been fully anonymised. and erroneous perceptions are common, for BJPSYCH INTERNATIONAL VOLUME 18 NUMBER 1 FEBRUARY 2021 9 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. 26 Sep 2021 at 18:06:26, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use. example, ‘sedatives are all that psychiatrists can ‘I didn’t take anything, just smoked a tobacco waterpipe offer’. with my friends.’ ‘ fi He rst took escitalopram but the pharmacy stock ran Substance misuse has historically been perceived out, so we switched to amitriptyline. That is not currently available, so we’ll prescribe fluoxetine.’ to be relatively low in Iraq, particularly compared with neighbouring Iran. However, poverty and more open borders have contributed to rising Commonly used psychotropic medications are drug use in recent years.8 Crystal methampheta- included in Iraq’sofficial lists of essential and mine use, in particular, has been garnering important medications that should be available great attention and concern.9 It was highlighted at public hospital pharmacies. However, particu- to the quoted teenager that anything may be larly at Al-Rashad Hospital, where the prescrip- unknowingly be inserted into a waterpipe. tion load is high and locals cannot afford to pay However, later in the day, a message arrived to for medications elsewhere, switching medications say he had admitted to having taken five pink may be mandated by stock rather than clinical pills the day before. considerations. As well as the likely detrimental effect on medication concordance, variable sup- ‘Please look at this X-ray, Doctor.’ plies can make national clinical guidelines more difficult to design and adhere to. Many UK psychiatrists would be bemused at a request to report a physical copy of a pelvis ‘ I recommend getting the branded olanzapine instead; X-ray. Unfamiliarity with radiology reporting is this one was made in Mosul.’ probably linked to ease of access to a radiologist and the inability to access images located on sep- Substandard and falsified medications are a glo- arate IT networks. In Iraq, images tend to be car- bal concern. In contrast to the relatively strong ried by patients in physical form, and review by a regulation of medications in the European psychiatrist may be the most practical option. Union, medications in low- and middle-income Interestingly, on this occasion at least, it was the countries are more likely to vary in composition most senior psychiatrist that was sought, rather and effectiveness.7 ‘Branded’ medication supplies than the juniors, who would have most recently fluctuate even in private pharmacies and so indi- had experience of the relevant specialties. viduals may rely on substandard alternatives, risk- ing a deterioration in their mental health. ‘Recent ministers have shown great support for this hospital.’ ‘There is a well-designed de-escalation room, but rheuma- ’ tology has that part of the hospital now. It was reassuring to hear positivity regarding mental health policy. Iraqi mental healthcare con- Bed pressures represent a shared theme between tinues to evolve. An update to the Mental Health our nations. Mental health facilities may have to Act should soon be ratified. More equitable and be squeezed in order to accommodate other efficient primary care models are being devel- stretched specialties, with unfortunate outcomes oped,10 and rehabilitation units and residential including shared patient bays and the loss of homes are planned. Subspecialty training pro- de-escalation rooms. That said, the hospitals do grammes are being strengthened, and curricula also have services that would not always be seen are being formalised for mental health nurses, in UK units: in-house pharmacy and pathology psychologists and social workers. Importantly, laboratories, and electroencephalogram, therap- sustained advances will require national security ies, and electroconvulsive therapy suites. I was and effective investment in public services, rather particularly impressed that Ibn Rushd Hospital than the stifling sectarianism and corruption that has a shared IT system for clinical documentation have defined Iraq this century. and investigation results – no need for the ‘How can we help you?’ ‘copy-and-paste’ that is a key competency for many British trainees. I started my visits with the vague purpose of see- ‘I can’t remember what the Turkish psychiatrist said.’ ing what psychiatry was like in Iraq and feel that I have benefited from the experience in many ways. Health tourism is a major activity among Iraqis, The ability of psychiatry to evolve for the better with many travelling across the Middle East and relies on questioning our practice, engaging criti- Asia in order to access treatments either unavail- cism and understanding our society.