This review deals with the current situation of mental health practice in Arab countries. Despite the complexity and importance of the topic, the Arab world still shows a lack of awareness regarding mental health problems and a dearth of mental health services and professionals. The main purpose of this paper is to examine changes in the area of mental health, and what still needs to be developed or investigated. Mental health patients in Arab countries tend to express their psychological problems in terms of physical symptoms, thereby avoiding the stigma attached to mental illness. They also tend to underutilize mental health services and to hold negative attitudes toward formal mental health services. Reliance upon a deity and religious leaders as a means of coping with mental health issues is another prevalent theme in the Arab world. Another issue is that of mental health practices in politically volatile and violent regions, where higher rates of mental health problems and psychiatric diagnoses have been found. In addition, women in Arab/Muslim countries are at paramount risk from mental health problems. The findings have implications for professional service delivery. Further research, intervention and activism are needed in the field of mental health systems in Arab countries to improve awareness of mental health problems. Further research is also needed regarding issues such as cultural competence and the suitability of mental health treatment and services for the non-Western communities in many Arab/Muslim countries.

Background: There has been no reported research comparing Jewish Israeli and Palestinian adolescents regarding the effect of ongoing political violence on adolescent psychosocial, family, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and aggression problems.Aims: To compare Israeli and Palestinian responses regarding the relationship between exposure to traumatic events and psychosocial, behavioural, emotional and family problems.Method: A cluster sample of youths aged 14–18 years, including 442 Jewish Israeli adolescents in Ariel, Haifa and Tel-Aviv, and 450 Palestinian adolescents in Gaza cities, villages and refugee camps were surveyed in 2006 using our Traumatic Events Questionnaire (TEV), the Brief Symptoms Inventory (BSI), the PTSD Symptom Scale – Interview (PSS–I), the Index of Peer Relations scale (IPR), Buss–Perry Aggression Questionnaire (BPAQ) and the MacMaster Family Assessment Device (FAD).Results: Palestinian respondents had higher scores in the TEV, BSI, PSS–I and BPAQ questionnaires, and greater problems in functioning as revealed in the IPR and FAD. The social functioning of the adolescents with their peers predicted mental health symptoms and PTSD symptoms. Lower socioeconomic status predicted mental health symptoms, PTSD, pathology of participants' family functioning and the social functioning of the adolescents with their peers. Parents' education positively effected the FAD score and the avoidance item on the PSS–I, and religiosity improved the score on the FAD. Females reported more symptoms on the BSI and PSS–I than males, and males more symptoms on the FAD and IPR than females.Conclusions: Both respondent groups had significant emotional and behavioural problems. Individual and community treatment, and community and social development, are likely to be useful for both populations, particularly Palestinians.

A wide literature considers differences in utilisation and attitudes towards mental health treatment among diverse ethno-racial and religious communities. This paper is the first to compare attitudes to mental health-seeking patterns among a cohort of students representing three major religious minorities among Arab communities in Israel: Christians, Druze, and Muslim. Results of a cross-national survey of 195 student respondents indicate significant differences regarding attitudes towards help-seeking behaviour. Compared to Druze and Muslim counterparts, Christian subjects were higher in interpersonal openness, perceived mental health services as less stigmatising, and were less likely to use traditional healing systems. Findings are analysed in relation to cultural, historical, and political differences.

This article examines the significant role of the mosque in the Muslim community. In addition to being a place of prayer, the mosque provides educational, political welfare, and conflict resolution services in times of dispute between groups, families, couples, and individuals. Practitioners, social workers, psychologists, and psychiatrists from Western cultures lack the informal information that can provide a full understanding of the ways in which Muslims cope in times of crisis. We suggest that social workers should expand their knowledge of the mosque and the Imam and acknowledge the vital role they play in the Muslim community. We believe that the mosque and Imam can work together with the social workers and supply the cultural and social knowledge that is required for the proper assistance to be given. This approach will help bridge the gap between local-religious and Western models of intervention.

A sample of 352 Bedouin Arab children—174 from monogamous and 178 from polygynous families—participated in this study. The authors used self-reported standardized measures to assess the participants' level of self-esteem, mental health, social functioning, father-child relationships, mother-child relationships, and family functioning. The findings revealed that children from polygynous families reported more mental health and social difficulties as well as poorer school achievement and poorer relationships with their fathers than did their counterparts from monogamous families. In addition, the children from polygynous families rated their families' functioning and economic status as poorer than did those of monogamous families. Thus, the authors suggest that a polygynous family structure negatively affects the family's socioeconomic status and interpersonal relationships and impairs the children's psychological and social functioning. The authors discuss implications for practice and policy.