Islam and mental health

Psychiatry is the branch of medicine that most prominently incorporates the humanities and social sciences in its scientific base and in its treatment of illness. Psychiatry has often needed to go well beyond the world of natural science into the philosophical realm. Psychiatry and religion both draw upon rich traditions of human thought and practice. Mental health providers in developed countries are increasingly treating patients whose backgrounds are very different from their own, so it is important for them to understand cultural belief systems including religious thought and practice that relate to mental health and illness. Psychiatry and religion are parallel and complementary frames of reference for understanding and describing the human experience and human behaviour.