There is a need to show how psychosocial issues affect children in conflict areas like Iraq. Raising knowledge and awareness of children's mental health status in Iraq has been difficult and the knowledge base has been limited by the shortage of resources, international sanctions and the isolation of Iraqi scholars. Many obstacles to research in Iraq exist but an agenda should be developed emphasising the need for high-quality contextualised psychosocial research. Health researchers in the country need to clarify basic population parameters and to provide culturally appropriate, evidence-based interventions for practitioners.

Understanding the way in which people seek care for mental disorders is important for planning services, training and referral mechanisms. Pathways to care fall broadly into three categories: via primary care physicians; via native healers; and via patient choice (patients can have direct access to mental health professionals). The pattern and nature of access to service in low-income countries are different from those in high-income countries. In many societies, deep-seated cultural beliefs on the part of patients and families about the causes of mental disorders are a major barrier to the receipt of modern psychiatric care.

Euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide have provoked controversy. The ethical and legal issues have been debated but more emphasis on the cultural and religious aspects is needed.

Coercion is recognised as a problem in health services around the world. Very little is known about the use and utility of coercive measures in psychiatry and other medical specialties in India, although the existing evidence supports the view that coercion is widely used. In February 2013 experts from India and Europe came together in Mysore, India, for an international symposium on coercion. A Declaration was drafted, discussed and ratified which defines coercive measures for the Indian context and which outlines ways to minimise coercion in medical settings in India. This paper describes the main points of the Declaration.

This article looks at the evidence that not only did mental health problems affect people in the past, but that the physicians of past eras made numerous attempts to understand, classify and treat mental illness. Our aim is to show the strong scientific reasoning during the medieval era, in the Islamic world in particular, and how the complexities encountered by physicians centuries ago still haunt psychiatrists today.

This review looks at the long-established customs and religious beliefs, as well as social and family structures, affecting the symptoms of psychiatric disorders among Egyptian people. It considers reactions to emotional distress and dysfunctionality. Some light is also shed on the healthcare system.