Qatar's national mental health study—the world mental health Qatar

Background

We provide an overview of Qatar's first epidemiological study on prevalence, predictors, and treatment contact for mood and anxiety disorders.

Aims

We highlight the importance of the three-pronged study, its aims, and its key components.

Materials & Methods

The first component comprised a probability-based representative survey of Qatari and non-Qatari (Arab) adult males and females recruited from the general population and interviewed using the International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI version 3.3). The second component, a clinical reappraisal study, assessed concordance between diagnoses based on the CIDI and independent clinical assessments conducted by trained clinical interviewers. The third component comprised a resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging study of healthy survey respondents who were matched to patients with psychosis.

Results

5000 survey interviews provided data on prevalence and treatment of common mental disorders. Clinical re-interviews (N = 485) provided important diagnostic validity data. Finally, state-of-the art structural and functional brain markers for psychosis were also collected (N = 100).

Discussion

Descriptive epidemiological data were collected to inform future mental health priorities in Qatar and situates these within a global context.

Conclusion

The study fills important gaps in regional and global estimates and establish necessary baseline to develop comprehensive risk estimates for mental health in Qatar’s young population.