Evidence for the existence of schizophrenia in medieval Islamic society

Youssef, Hanafy A.; Youssef, Fatma A.; Dening, Tom

doi:10.1177/0957154x9600702503

Cited by 56 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…The first psychiatric hospitals were founded in Arabic countries [21, 22]: Baghdad 705 A.D (during the kingship of the caliph El Waleed ibn Abdel Malek), Cairo 800 A.D, and Damascus 1270 A.D, whereas the first psychiatric asylum in the West Europe, the Bethlem Hospital in London, was founded in the thirteenth century [23]. Important figures of the Arabic medicine are Razis (860–932 A.D) and Avicennas (980–1037 A.D) [24].…”

Section: Mental Health In the Islamic Worldmentioning

confidence: 99%

Islam, mental health and law: a general overview

Tzeferakos

Douzenis

2017

Ann Gen Psychiatry

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Islam is the dominant religion in about 56 countries around the globe, and has more than 1.2 billion followers. Islam represents a holistic way of life, and according to a large proportion of its followers, the Islamic law or Shari’ah should prevail over secular law and should be implemented as state law. The etymological root of the word Shari’ah can be traced back to the harsh life in the desert and it means “pathway to be followed” or “path to the water hole,” since the water was the basic element and preserver of life. At the dawn of its historical course and at its moral and ethical core, Islam introduced many interesting and innovative beliefs concerning the mentally ill. Islam underlines the moral necessity for the protection and care of the vulnerable individuals, as dictated by God himself. On the other hand, beliefs about “possession” and stigmatization influence the peoples’ attitude against and apprehension of mental disorders. This strange admixture is reflected upon the status of the mental health services and corresponding legislation found in the different countries of the Islamic world.

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Section: Mental Health In the Islamic Worldmentioning

confidence: 99%

Islam, mental health and law: a general overview

Tzeferakos

Douzenis

2017

Ann Gen Psychiatry

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“…Consequently, Western society felt a need to regulate and answer the question of what deviant mental states are of relevance to the court [1]. Although Arab countries were among the first in the world to establish mental health hospitals (in Baghdad in the year 705 AD, Cairo in 800 and in Damascus in 1270 [2]), currently most Arab countries have no mental health acts [3], no certified training in forensic psychiatry, there is little research if any in forensic psychiatry and forensic psychiatric services are poorly organised [3,4]. However, the growth in the economy of the Arab gulf countries in the last few decades has been associated with growth of all the systems needed to support this economy, including mental health and judicial systems.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Characteristics of mentally ill offenders from 100 psychiatric court reports

2010

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BackgroundThere is an increasing probability that the psychiatrist will, willingly or not, come into contact with mentally ill offenders in the course of their practice. There are increasing rates of violence, substance abuse and other psychiatric disorders that are of legal importance. Therefore, the aim of this work was to investigate the rates of different mental disorders in 100 court reports and to investigate the characteristics of mentally ill offenders.MethodsAll cases referred from different departments of the legal system to the forensic committee for assessment of legal accountability over 13-months duration were included. A specially designed form was prepared for data collection. Cases were classified into five groups: murder, robbery, financial offences, violent and simple offences and a group for other offences. Data were subjected to statistical analysis and comparisons between different groups of subjects were performed by analysis of variance (ANOVA).ResultsMen constituted 93% of cases. In all, 73% of offenders were younger than 40 years old. Schizophrenia cases made up 13% of the total, substance related cases constituted 56% and amphetamine cases alone made up 21%; 10% of cases were antisocial personality disorders, and 51% of cases were classified as having a low education level. Unemployment was found in 34% of cases. The final decision of the forensic committee was full responsibility in 46% of cases and partial responsibility in 11% of cases, with 33% considered non-responsible. A total of 58% of cases had had contact with psychiatric healthcare prior to the offence and in 9% of cases contact had been in the previous 12 weeks. A history of similar offences was found in 32% of cases. In all, 14% of the offences were murders, 8% were sexual crimes, and 31% were violent/simple crimes.ConclusionsThe ability of the legal system to detect cases was good, while the ability of the healthcare system to predict crimes and offences was weak, as 58% of cases had had previous contact with the healthcare system previously. Substance abuse, especially amphetamine abuse, played an important role.

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“…Ishaq Ibn Imran, in his Essay on Melancholy (Maqala fi lMalikhuliya), describes a patient with low mood and symptoms such as foolish acts, fear, delusions (waswas) and hallucinations (Youssef & Youssef, 1996).…”

Section: Psychosismentioning

confidence: 99%

“…He defined junun (madness) as an illness where reality is replaced by fantasy; he thought that the origin of such illnesses was from the middle part of the brain (Youssef & Youssef, 1996).…”

Section: Psychosismentioning

confidence: 99%

Mental health problems: journey from Baghdad to Europe

Abbasi¹,

Omrani²

2013

Int. psychiatry

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This article looks at the evidence that not only did mental health problems affect people in the past, but that the physicians of past eras made numerous attempts to understand, classify and treat mental illness. Our aim is to show the strong scientific reasoning during the medieval era, in the Islamic world in particular, and how the complexities encountered by physicians centuries ago still haunt psychiatrists today. Akhlaq al-tabib, 1977, pp. 77-78)

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Evidence for the existence of schizophrenia in medieval Islamic society

Cited by 56 publications

References 4 publications

Islam, mental health and law: a general overview

Islam, mental health and law: a general overview

Characteristics of mentally ill offenders from 100 psychiatric court reports

Mental health problems: journey from Baghdad to Europe

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