Current Research in Psychiatry

Research Article Open Access

Integrating mental healthcare into primary healthcare services: Saudi Arabia progress and achievements (1995–2022)

Abdullah Dukhail Al-Khathami , Laifa Saleh Alharbi , Shaker Abdulaziz Alomari , Abdulrahman Abdullah Alqahtani , Deemah Saad Alfadhli

Mental health disorders affect approximately 60% of patients in primary healthcare (PHC) settings, yet conditions like depression and anxiety often remain undiagnosed due to limited provider training. Saudi Arabia has progressively integrated mental health into PHC services, aligning with the WHO’s mhGAP Plan (2013–2030). This study examines these efforts and introduces the Five-Step Model (AlKhathami Approach) as a framework to enhance mental health care delivery.

Commentary Open Access

Clinical reasoning, medical error, and treatment failure

H. Paul Putman III

Cognitive error, innate to all human reasoning, commonly interferes with clinical success. Psychiatric education and practice skew toward the lowest levels of clinical reasoning, leaving practitioners unprepared to solve many of the increasingly complex clinical dilemmas we face. Despite our self-confidence, around half of current treatment attempts result in suboptimal outcomes or overt treatment failures, increasingly mislabeled “treatment resistance.

Commentary Open Access

A commentary on methodological considerations for studying the psychological impact of social media

Tom Grimes , Kristen Sussman

Long-running debates over the psychological effects of media violence have exposed significant methodological problems embedded within 40-plus years of research. Parallel concerns have now emerged within contemporary social media research. This commentary expands on the observations recently published by Grimes and Lasser (2025) to show how social media scholars are in similar danger of relying too much on inconsistent operationalizations of key constructs and insufficient attention to individual differences among people who consume media. 

Commentary Open Access

From complexity to clarity: The Umbrella Collaboration® and the future of tertiary evidence synthesis in psychiatry

Beltran Carrillo

The exponential growth in the publication of systematic reviews and meta-analyses (SRs/MAs) over the past two decades has radically transformed the landscape of scientific evidence. 

Commentary Open Access

The relationships between hopelessness, helplessness, haplessness and their effects on psychological well being

Sevginar Vatan , David Lester

Hopelessness, helplessness and haplessness are concepts that are conceptually related to one another. In empirical studies, it is found that these concepts are associated with psychopathological traits, including suicidal ideation, as etiological or sustaining factors. It is suggested that studying these thoughts in clients is important for both prevention and treatment studies.