Patients brave mental health desert in Mauritania

Nouakchott: The wall was tagged with graffiti above 22 year old Sidi s bed in the lone psychiatric hospital in Mauritania, a country whose mental heal...

Nouakchott: The wall was tagged with graffiti above 22-year-old Sidi's bed in the lone psychiatric hospital in Mauritania, a country whose mental health system is as sparse as its desert landscapes.

"Stress kills your neurons," said the message scrawled in room 13, one of just 20 beds available for psychiatric patients in the African country of five million people, which sits between the Atlantic and the Sahara.

Sidi's father, Mohamed Lemine, traced his son's mental health troubles to a frustrated attempt to emigrate to the United States.

"His friends got him into these problems. They put the idea in his head of leaving the country, but the bank turned down his loan application," Lemine said.

"After that, he became sad and started taking drugs."