Mental Health in Bangladesh - From Bench to Community

This book is about mental health in Bangladesh. Bangladesh is a densely populated country in South Asia with a population of about 170 million. It has seen significant economic growth over the last decades, and it has recently improved from being a low-income country to a lower middle-income country. Currently, Bangladesh is facing a double burden of disease, i.e., both communicable and non-communicable. About 60% of the disease burden is incured by non-communicable diseases. Mental disorders are one of the top five burdens of non-communicable disease in the country. However, psychiatry is a neglected issue in Bangladesh. There are high stigma, services gaps, out-of-pocket expense, low mental health literacy, and extreme scarcity of budget. Academically, it has also been under-addressed and under-researched. Therefore, the editor aims to provide a comprehensive book on mental health in Bangladesh, based on existing evidence and expertise, focusing on academic aspects of community mental health service.


Dr. S M Yasir Arafat is currently working as an Associate Consultant of Psychiatry at Bangladesh Specialized Hospital Ltd. (BSHL), Dhaka, Bangladesh. He is affiliated with Dnet as an honorary Research Fellow and Biomedical Research Foundation, Bangladesh as Senior Research Fellow. He was affiliated with the University of Bristol, UK as a Visiting Senior Research Associate, (August 2021-2023). He completed MD in Psychiatry from Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, Dhaka and MBBS from the Dhaka Medical College, Dhaka, Bangladesh. He also did an MPH in Health Economics and MBA in Marketing. Dr. Arafat has (co)authored more than 350 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters, and (co)edited several books with Springer. He has been included in the global 2% researcher list in 2021, 2022, and 2023. He is acting as an editorial member in more than 10 leading journals in mental health published by Frontiers, Wiley, Springer, and Taylor and Francis. His research focused on mental health, suicidal behavior, psychometrics, panic buying, and psycho-sexual disorders.