Epidemiology of schizophrenia and related disorders in the arab world

Abstract EN

Mental health research has been increasing over the past 40 years in the Arab world.

Reviews on several topics in this region were conducted including suicide, substance use disorders, anxiety disorders and attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder so as to update clinicians, researchers, and students alike about such research.

The aim of this paper is to address the topic of schizophrenia and related disorders.

Method: A review was conducted up until 2007 using specific keywords and several search engines (PubMed, PsycInfo, and IDRAAC web database) to identify relevant articles.

Results: Despite the scarcity of literature on schizophrenia and related disorders in the Arab world, a variety of topics emerged from the current research.

According to the publications identified, the prevalence of psychotic disorders ranged between 0.7% and 5.6% with no highlighted gender differences.

Several studies examined comorbidity among psychotic disorders and substance use or depression, and/or the burden related to psychotic disorders (stigma and discrimination, family burden, burden of criminality, burden of lack of treatment, fertility and death related issues).

Conclusion: There is an unmet need for national studies on schizophrenia and related disorders in this region of the world to identify the magnitude of the problem, and consequently to inform the future direction of research and clinical practice.