More than two years of war, occupation and insurgency have turned Iraq into possibly the most psychologically damaged nation in the world, one of the country’s top psychiatrists said on Thursday.

Dr. Harith Hassan, the former head of Baghdad’s Psychological Research Center, estimated that more than 70 percent of the private clients he sees each week are suffering from Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), a severe anxiety condition.

“Iraq is one of the most stressed, oppressed countries in the world - you can see the suffering every day, every hour, even every minute,” said Hassan .

“Psychologically, it may be the worst affected country in the world. It’s something experts are worried about and that we need to look into…The long-term implications are profound.

“What’s going on is really a catastrophe from a psychological and a societal point of view,” he said.

Aside from the initial impact of the war, with its “shock and awe” U.S. bombing, Iraqis have had to deal with occupation by foreign forces, the random, widespread death brought about by insurgents, and the growing effects of sectarian tensions.

Hassan said sectarian division was one of his biggest concerns, with Iraqis increasingly being defined, and defining themselves, by classifications that were not common before.

“The sectarianism - that goes straight into the heart of a family and can be very damaging,” he said.

DAMAGED PSYCHE

“You may have a Shi’ite father and a Sunni mother, and the children don’t really know how they are defined, but they are being forced to define themselves as one or the other,” he said.

“Iraq hasn’t experienced these sorts of divisions before and it is creating terrible psychological trauma.”

Iraq’s population is made up of Sunni and Shi’ite Muslim Arabs, Kurds, who are also mostly Sunni Muslims, and several smaller groups including Turkmen, Christians and Yazidis.

Insurgents, who draw the bulk of their support from the Sunni Arab community, have increasingly engaged in tit-for-tat killings of Shi’ites in recent months, raising the fear of civil war. Kurds and Christians have also been attacked.

“It’s what’s going on between us now that worries me most,” said Hassan, who studied in Britain and the United States.

With the help of a research center in the United Arab Emirates, Hassan has begun a preliminary study into the extent of post-traumatic stress disorder in Iraq. He is particularly concerned about the prevalence among women and children.

“It’s very widespread, the situation is really very bad,” he said. “I see 15-20 people a day just at my private clinic and I would say that not less than 70 percent of them are suffering from PTSD. The stories I hear are shocking.”

If he can secure assistance from the World Health Organization, the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health and other groups, Hassan hopes to conduct a nationwide study of the problem over the next 18 months.

“The country needs it. Things are getting worse and worse,” he said. “We need to understand what is happening to our national psyche and try to resolve it.”