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Mental disorders in the developing world
EDITOR, - The issues raised by Melanie Abas and Jeremy Broadhead, particularly the suggestion about the use of local resources in developing intervention programmes, are relevant to mental health care delivery in the developing world.Many developing countries, however, have other major health problems related to poverty and ignorance, besides those shared with the more developed countries. This makes generalisation of health priority statistics meaningless, and such issues should be left to be determined locally. It is also unlikely that concentrating on minor disorders will improve the image of psychiatric services among either the politicians or the populace, whose felt need is likely to be different, irrespective of beliefs about causation.
Most developing countries are still striving to establish a functional primary health care structure. Hence, observable deficiencies in the mental health component only mirror the state of primary health care in general, rather than a specific inadequacy of mental
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- Mental disorders in the developing world
- M Abas and J Broadhead
BMJ 1994 308: 1052-1053.[Extract] [Full Text]
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