Perceptions of mental health disorders: an exploratory study in some arab societies
International Journal of Development Research
Perceptions of mental health disorders: an exploratory study in some arab societies
Received 12th October, 2018; Received in revised form 26th November, 2018; Accepted 14th December, 2018; Published online 30th January, 2019
Copyright © 2019, Samer Jamil Rudwan and Sultan Mousa Al Owidha. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
The present study examined the perceptions and attitudes of some samples from three Arab countries in terms of psychotherapy and mental disorders. The sample consisted of 813 (366 male and 447 female) respondents from Syria, Oman and Saudi Arabia. Respondents completed an electronic questionnaire developed by the researchers to assess their perceptions and attitudes towards psychotherapy and mental disorders. The results showed that respondents from different sources had information about mental disorders, especially from books and magazines. It was also found that they had a relatively good idea about psychotherapy overall. Their attitudes have been positive, but there have been some misconceptions and stereotypes about some aspects of psychotherapy, mental disorders and their causes. These misunderstandings and stereotypes should be removed to promote awareness of psychotherapy and its potentialities, as well as general mental health problems in Arab countries.
