The study of mental illness in Iraq and its common trends: A systematic review

Background and Objectives: Most of the population worldwide is suffering from mental illness due to one reason, or other but very limited data is available specifically in Iraq. Iraq has had a long history of wars and terrorist activities during the last four decades. Limited research is carried out that focus specifically on mental health and its related subheadings to understand the trends of research in this field. Therefore, this systematic review aims to understand the connection between the studies in a special period on mental health and the areas that these papers cover in this field. Methods: by using the protocol of PRISMA, 33 full-length English language articles were searched in the major databases, (PubMed, EMBASE and MEDLINE). With the help of specific keywords like "mental health in Iraq," "anxiety," "depression," "Iraq survey," "Psychosis," "postpartum," "prevalence of mental illness in Iraq," "Prevalence of Mental disorders in Iraq." 14 articles were finally selected for further data extraction. Result: findings revealed a wide coverage of different factors like violence, war, individuals with diabetes, stressful environment, infertile women, parents of children with cancer, and old aged are responsible for mental health problems. Topics such as child and adolescent mental health include hospital-based studies on psychiatric problems of children, community-based investigation on the mental health of a different group of minorities, the prevalence rate among different age groups child and adolescent population, and studies on prevention and intervention strategies for boosting mental health care in the area should be considered for further detail investigation. Conclusion: This systematic review indicated that research in the mental health field needs to be reconsidered regarding the priorities and focuses according to the need of country. Though major factors have been identified but there is an uneven distribution of the present mental health situation and published studies.