Iraq's Crisis of Scarred PsychesUntreated Mental Disorders Seen as Widespread
.....Only about 75 psychiatrists remain.....There are currently no child psychiatrists in this country of about 25 million, Razak said.
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In a survey of just over 1,000 randomly selected people across five Baghdad neighborhoods, completed this month by psychiatrists at Baghdad's Mustansariyah University, about 890 reported having experienced a violent incident firsthand, including all 27 children under 12 in the sample.
Most alarming, according to the physicians who analyzed the data, was that exposure to trauma has grown dramatically more common since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. The people in the study recalled 3,504 violent incidents between 1979, when Hussein came to power, and 2003. Since the invasion, they have recorded 6,463.
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"For more than 40 years, everything in our country said to be a hero you must be violent. Violence was how we survived, by identifying with aggressors," said Muhammad Lafta, the deputy national adviser for mental health and a psychiatrist at al-Rashid Hospital, one of two dedicated psychiatric hospitals in the country. Under Hussein, he said, elementary school students were made to assemble at least once a week to watch their principals fire AK-47 assault rifles into the air.
The damage to Hussein Ali Saoud's mind is reflected in the molten-looking, purplish scars that rend the skin of both his forearms. An Iraqi soldier during the 2003 invasion, he said he watched two of his platoon mates die from gunshot wounds as U.S. troops invaded Baghdad. Since then, he has sought relief by taking drugs and slicing jagged lines in his flesh with a razor.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/05/AR2006030500948.html 
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