It is now well established that there is significant psychiatric morbidity among primary health care patients, most of which is missed. Such missed morbidity commonly results in inadequate patient care. Over the past 3 decades there has been remarkable advances in psychiatric screening in primary health care settings using various effective psychiatric instruments. This review summarises attempts for many years to address some of the ethno-sociocultural influences encountered in psychiatric screening in primary health care in Arabic speaking countries, where appropriate, culture-specific psychiatric instruments are scarce. It summarises the process of translation and application of some psychiatric screening scales in cultures other than those in which they were originally designed (General Health Questionnaire, Hospital Anxiety and Depression, Self-Reporting Questionnaire-20), in addition to summarising experience of using these scales to develop Arabic scales that are relevant to local culture. The relevant issues of what psychiatric screening scales measure, and what constitutes a psychiatric case in primary health care settings are also addressed. It is felt that this article will be relevant and useful for psychiatric research involving the use of Arabic screening scales, especially in primary health care settings.