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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| A Quarter of the Iranian Population Suffers from Psychological Illnesses |
| 2004-04-24 |
| Ali Hashemi, the head of Iran’s counternarcotics agency, said that there are 2 million drug addicts in the country, contradicting an earlier figure of 2.7 million, though he admitted the number is imprecise. .... He said the country hopes to maintain the figure at 2 million over the next decade, the daily added. .... between 25 and 30 percent of Iranians suffer from "psychological illnesses" and 6 percent have "acute depression," but only 1 percent receive any treatment. ... 2-3 percent of Iranians are schizophrenics, while depression, stress, obsession, sexual problems, and sleeplessness are far more prevalent. |
| Posted by:Mike Sylwester |
| #4 If you look at the good old DSM IV you can locate just about everybody on some psychiatric disorder spectrum or another. |
| Posted by: James 2004-04-24 8:31:46 PM |
| #3 He said the country hopes to maintain the figure at 2 million over the next decade... In a totalitarian country those are ominous words. |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2004-04-24 6:38:02 PM |
| #2 Actually, if you looked at Americans clinically, they would probably have a similar statistical breakdown in many ways, with of course some variation. Start with the Standard Distribution Curve, i.e., 50% of *any* population is "below normal" as far as mental health go. 17% (of the total) are so mentally ill as to have difficulty functioning in society, and 5% probably need institutionalization. Now, this is just using the SDC. There are a TON of mitigating factors working both ways, that is, pushing people towards mental health *and* mental illness. So in all fairness, in a country with a lot of modern stresses such as war, authoritarian government, high unemployment, etc., and a lack of not just modern medicine to treat psychiatric problems, but also competant support organizations and people, you *will* see pretty high rates of mental illness. |
| Posted by: Anonymous 2004-04-24 5:01:30 PM |
| #1 Disagreeing with the government is often described as a "psychological illness" in fascist regimes. |
| Posted by: Aris Katsaris 2004-04-24 1:04:39 PM |