Nigeria is a huge country. It covers an area of 924 000 km2 on the west coast of Africa. It has a population of about 110 million, which means that every one in six Africans is a Nigerian. It is a country of diverse ethnicity, with over 200 spoken languages, even though three of those are spoken by about 60% of the population. Administratively, it is divided into 36 states and operates a federal system of government, with constitutional responsibilities allocated to the various tiers of government – central, state and local. There are two main religions, Islam (predominantly in the north) and Christianity (predominantly in the south). However, a large proportion of the people still practise traditional religions exclusively or in addition to either Islam or Christianity.

Austria covers an area of some 84000 km2 and has a population of 8.1 million. According to World Bank criteria, Austria is a high-income country. The overall health budget represents 8% of gross domestic product (World Health Organization, 2005). The state of Austria is divided into nine federal provinces, which have significant legislative rights, including in healthcare provision.

The history of the psychiatric scene in Jordan is briefly described, and the Jordanian Public Health Law is highlighted, as its chapter on mental health regulates compulsory admission. Some notes are included on the criminal law and civil law, and Jordan's forensic psychiatric services are briefly described.

Jordan, one of the most recently established countries in the Middle East, was part of the Ottoman Empire. It was declared a political entity known as Transjordan under the mandate of the British government in 1923, until it gained independence and was declared a Kingdom in 1946. In 1950, Transjordan and the West Bank were united and assumed the current name of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. The next major change for the Kingdom came in 1967, when the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip by Israeli forces caused a massive influx of migrants to the East Bank.

Spain covers an area of some 506 000 km2 and has a population of just over 41 million. It is a high-income country (according to World Bank criteria) and devotes 7.5% of its gross domestic product to health.

Switzerland - officially the Swiss Confederation - is a federal republic situated in central Europe. It covers an area of 41 287 km2 and has a population of just over 7 600 000. Switzerland consists of 26 federated states, of which 20 are called cantons and 6 are called half-cantons. German, French and Italian are Switzerland's major and official languages.

There is a need to show how psychosocial issues affect children in conflict areas like Iraq. Raising knowledge and awareness of children's mental health status in Iraq has been difficult and the knowledge base has been limited by the shortage of resources, international sanctions and the isolation of Iraqi scholars. Many obstacles to research in Iraq exist but an agenda should be developed emphasising the need for high-quality contextualised psychosocial research. Health researchers in the country need to clarify basic population parameters and to provide culturally appropriate, evidence-based interventions for practitioners.

In recent years, the number of suicides in Japan has increased dramatically, particularly among middle-aged men. According to the Brief Report on Suicides in 2001 by the National Police Agency of Japan (NPA, 2002), the number of suicides in Japan was 31 042, and the national suicide rate was 24.4/100 000. Akita is an agricultural prefecture with a population of approximately 1 200 000. According to the Akita Prefectural Police (APP), the number of suicides in Akita Prefecture was 457 (299 males, 158 females) in 2001. Akita Prefecture currently has the highest rate of suicide in Japan. The identification of strategies for suicide prevention is therefore imperative.

Armenia is a landlocked mountainous country between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, in the southern Caucasus. It shares borders with Turkey to the west, Georgia to the north, Azerbaijan to the east, and Iran and the Nakhchivan exclave of Azerbaijan to the south. Its total area is 29 743 km2. A former republic of the Soviet Union, Armenia is a unitary, multi-party, democratic nation state with an ancient cultural heritage. Armenia prides itself on being the first nation formally to adopt Christianity (in the early 4th century).

The large number of individuals with severe mental disorders in prisons worldwide has alarming implications, which leads to the question of the appropriateness of the prison system for people with this type of morbidity. This article discusses these implications, the problems in therapeutic approaches and the legal aspects in the Brazilian context.

Risk factors for poor mental health among UK veterans include demonstrating symptoms while in service, being unmarried, holding lower rank, experiencing childhood adversity and having a combat role; however, deploy ment to a combat zone does not appear to be associated with mental health outcomes. While presentation of late-onset, post-service difficulties may explain some of the difference between veterans and those in service, delayed-onset post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) appears to be partly explained by prior subthreshold PTSD, as well as other mental health difficulties. In the longer term, veterans do not appear to suffer worse mental health than equivalent civilians. This overall lack of difference, despite increased mental health difficulties in those who have recently left, suggests that veterans are not at risk of worse mental health and/or that poor mental health is a cause, rather than a consequence, of leaving service.

Maudsley International was set up to help improve people's mental health and well-being around the world. A variety of programmes have been developed by Maudsley International over the past 10 years, for planning and implementing services; building capacity; and training and evaluation to support organisations and individuals, professionals and managers to train and develop health and social care provisions. Maudsley International's model is based on collaboration, sharing expertise and cultural understanding with international partners.

Human resources for mental health are a challenge in all countries. In countries rich and poor, there is a big gap between the need for mental health services and the availability of those services. In an unusual way, the barriers to mental healthcare appear to be universal, which is not true of non-psychiatric healthcare. Nonetheless, the World Health Report 2001 and the World Health Organization's Atlas project have recorded extremely low levels of service in most developing countries (World Health Organization, 2001a,b). The recruitment of consultant psychiatrists from low- and middle-income countries, discussed in the October 2004 issue of International Psychiatry (Ndetei et al, 2004; Jenkins, 2004), raises a number of challenges for both developing and developed countries.

Sixty per cent of the global elderly population live in low-and middle-income countries, and this proportion was expected to rise to 70% by 2010 (International Institute of Ageing, 2001; Ferri et al, 2005). The 2001 Indian census found over 70 million people aged 60 years or more (considered senior citizens according to the Indian National Policy on Older Persons). Most of those senior citizens live with younger family members and are dependent on them for financial and social support. Hence, any physiological and psychological changes in the older family members affect the younger supportive members as well.