psychiatric disorders in an iranian rural population

a psychiatric survey has been carried out in a solitary small village located in the fringes of central desert of iran. out of 106 individuals of 15 years old and over, selected randomly, 57 (53.8%) were found to be suffering from psychiatryic disturbances 21 (41.2%) of them were males and 36 (65.5%) were females. depressive illnesses were found to be the most frequntfy encontered disorder. the propable reason of relatively high incidence of mental illnesses as compared with similar studies carried out in other parts of the country has been discussed, and the genetical factors, as well as, the life style has-been found to be possible causes.