The World Mental Health Project on the Prevalence of Mental Health Disorders
MENA Dubai 2003 Abstract
Author E. Karam, Z. Mneimneh, A. N. Karam, J. Fayyad, Y. Chatila, L. Ghandour, and C. Cordahi
Copy I.D.R.A.C. (the Institute for Development Research and Applied Care) is a non-profit, non-governmental organization conducting research in the mental health field on national and international levels since 1983 and based in Beirut/Lebanon.

Recently, we joined a cross-national effort that is being organized by Harvard University (USA) and the World Health Organization (WHO-Geneva). This effort consists of a worldwide epidemiologic project called the World Mental Health Surveys (WMH) that is being conducted in 26 worldwide countries: USA, Canada, Brazil, Cuba, Mexico, Japan, China, France, Colombia, Indonesia, Nepal, Nigeria, South Africa, Turkey, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, New Zealand, India, Lebanon, Ukraine, Panama and Peru.

The objectives of WMH are multifold and are mainly to assess the prevalence of Mental Health Disorders (Depression, Mania, Anxiety, Panic Disorder, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder [PTSD], Phobia, Psychosis, etc.), including Substance Use Disorders, and to have accurate information on the Quality and intricacies of Couple life, on Childhood and upbringing, and on the effect of Stress on the onset and course of mental disorders. It also assesses the effect of war, migration, economic burden and socio-demographic factors on mental health disorders and their adverse social consequences. Finally, accurate information will be collected on: utilization of services for emotional and psychiatric disorders, lifetime and recent patterns of treatment (consultation, hospitalization and use of medications), and the impact of general health problems on individual's functioning.

A nationally representative sample has been selected and interviewed using the state of the art structured interviews. This was accomplished by selecting around 7300 households from the five different Mohafazat (Beirut, Mount Lebanon, North, South and Bekaa) in Lebanon to represent the total adult Lebanese population.

This is a unique chance for science, health planning and well being of the Arab population since it will provide for the first time a national exhaustive and highly representative database on the mental health profile of an Arab-speaking population that will include information on prevalence, risk factors, treatment and burden of mental health disorders.