Epidemiological Studies on Mental Health In Tehran – Iran

Epidemiological Studies on Mental Health In Tehran – Iran Habib Emami " To my wife Golnar and my daughters Dena and Maral for their patience " Umeå 2008 Abstract Since 1979 Iranians have experienced a variety of events that reasonably will have lasting effects on their mental health. In 1979 the Islamic Revolution took place and in 1980 eight years of Iraq-Iran war started. In recent years there has developed conflicts between Iran and the International society because of the Iranian activities in developing nuclear energy. To these can be added the social and religious limitations on the behavior of people. These limitations are experienced especially strong in the life of adolescents and young people. This thesis covers four different aspects of the mental health of Iranians. General health questionnaire (GHQ-12) was utilized to investigate the mental health of 4599 Iranian 3 rd grade high school students (aged 17-18 years). The GHQ cut off was taken 7 or more. A considerable proportion of the students were at risk of suffering from mental health problems (29.5 %), girls more than boys. Periodic mental health surveys in high schools are proposed to identify students at risk and activities to improve their coping skills and problem-solving abilities. To study the methods of poisoning used for deliberate self harm, 2039 medical records in Loghman Hospital in Tehran were reviewed (52.3 % were females). Loghman Hospital is a specialized hospital for intoxication cases. In both genders the greatest proportions of individuals were in the ages 20-29. Drugs, pesticides and other agricultural chemicals were the most commonly used methods in each age group regardless of gender. Females outnumbered males especially in the youngest age group of 10 to 19 years of age. In a cross sectional study of 214 subjects from Tehran the Attitude Towards Suicide (ATTS) instrument was translated and validated in Farsi language. The coefficient alpha for all sections was more than 0.70 except for the Attitude section which was 0.68. Ten latent factors were extracted from the attitude section accounting for 61 % of the variance in the data. It is concluded that the instrument can be used to study suicide ideation and attempts in Iranian populations, but new items with special attention to Iranian cultural characteristics should be added to the attitude section. To make a cross cultural comparison of personality using the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI) samples of 300 Germans, …