Based on her experiences following the 1991 Gulf war, Doctor Shaja Hashedam expected a major increase in trauma-related ailments, ranging from anxiety to severe depression to the post-traumatic stress disorder common after conflicts.

"Already, there are people in my neighborhood who have had breakdowns and severe depression. They are staying in their houses and not going out because they are still afraid," she said.

However, both Hashedam, director of the psychiatric department at the University of Baghdad's nursing school, and relief agencies said there would not be very much they could do to help them in the short-term.

Baghdad's Rashid psychiatric hospital, near the sprawling northern Shiite slum of Saddam City, was ransacked by mobs following the US takeover of the city and there were reports of female patients gang-raped by looters.

Many who were hospitalized left the facility through the open gates.

The hospital, with several wards over some 25 acres (10 hectares), had 1,100 patients. There are now only about 225 left, officials said. There was only one doctor and around 20 staffers.

Frederic Bonamy of the French relief group Premiere Urgence said psychiatric care was "unfortunately a low priority right now" because hospitals were still being overwhelmed by war wounded, including new cases of infections from shrapnel wounds and cluster bombs.

"There are no facilities to deal with this problem and no aid groups are working on it, there are just too many other things we have to work on," said Bonamy, whose group has provided infrastructural support for Iraqi hospitals since 1997.

Pyschiatric care outside the capital is also virtually non-existent. Doctors also have no way of knowing how many people will be afflicted: "It's too early to tell," said Hashedam.

There is also the larger question what kind of pyschological impact the US occupation is having on millions of ordinary Iraqis.

Just over a month ago, Saddam Hussein's iron-fisted Baath party held the reins over almost every aspect of their lives.

But since the fall of Baghdad more than two weeks ago, there has been no administration and no control. People are becoming increasingly angry with the lack of basic services.

"I think everybody in Iraq has suffered trauma from the war. Right now people just don't know what to think because everything has changed so much," Hashedam said.

"It's not just the absence of Saddam Hussein and the emergence of the Americans, it's the fact that there is no system to guide people, there has been no electricty, no water, no feeling of security," she said.

She said the biggest problems would come from cases of post-traumatic stress disorder, often referred to as shell shock, including from the so-called "shock and awe" bombing campaign unleashed against Baghdad.

The disorder, which can occur in anyone who has been exposed to the horrors of war, can cause flashbacks and nightmares. It can take up to six months to make a clinical diagnosis.

SPACE.WIRE