Rebuilding psychiatry in Uganda

Psychiatry in Uganda has a fine pedigree. Academic psychiatry was established in the late 1960s when the Makerere University Department of Psychiatry was founded. Academic medicine and psychiatry suffered during the Amin regime but, like the country as a whole, these have begun to rebuild themselves over the past 10 years. Problems still remain including poor facilities, lack of resources, and a need to revise the Mental Treatment Act and standards of treatment. The high prevalence of AIDS and post-traumatic stress disorder place added burdens on Ugandan psychiatry.