Psychiatry and mental health in Morocco
Author: Moussaoui D.
Source:
Bulletin de L'academie Nationale de Medecine, 191(4-5), 781-782.
Morocco has a population of some thirty million inhabitants, a very large
proportion of whom are young. Mental health and psychiatry are dealt with jointly
by the university, public, private, and military sectors. Despite significant
progress in the last twenty years, there are still no more than 350 psychiatrists
in Morocco (thirty years ago there were fewer than ten...), plus about 60
clinical psychologists, about 400 nurses specializing in psychiatry, and social
workers. There are about 1900 psychiatric beds in both specialized hospitals and
general hospital psychiatry units located in the main cities. In the teaching
sector there are currently four university psychiatry departments, with a total
of five full professors, six associate professors and five assistant professors.
The National Mental Health Program, launched in 1974 and revised in 1994, was not
properly implemented. Several NGOs also work in psychiatry and mental health,
including the League for Mental Health and five patient associations. A national
survey of the prevalence of mental disorders, completed in 2003 but only made
public in 2007, represented a watershed for psychiatry in Morocco: 48.9% of a
sample of 5600 persons representative of the general population were found to
have a mental disorder, and 26.5% of respondents were depressed. This survey is
an invaluable reference for years to come, helping to match mental healthcare
provision with real needs. Research activity has also progressed since the early
1980s, as reflected by the number and quality of publications in the different
fields, including epidemiology, biological psychiatry, social psychiatry,
psychopharmacology and clinical psychopathology. Cultural aspects are a special
research focus (suicide and religion, cannabis use, traditional treatments,
etc.). International university collaboration has been especially important for
Moroccan research. However, despite major progress over the last three decades in
the fields of psychiatry and mental health, much remains to be done, notably to
bolster child and adolescent psychiatry, and to manage mental illness in small
towns and villages, including in the remotest regions.