Role of traditional healers in the pathway to care of patients with schizophrenia in Egypt.
BACKGROUND
Traditional healers are considered one of the important stages in the pathway to care of schizophrenia patients because of the confidence in the system, affordability and accessibility of the service, exposing patients to hazardous management, delay in seeking psychiatric help and bad prognosis.


AIM
To assess the pathway to care of schizophrenia patients and role of traditional healers into it, the sociodemographic and clinical correlates of those patients.


METHODS
We assessed 232 patients with schizophrenia after confirmation of diagnosis with Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis I Disorder (SCID-I) research version using a questionnaire designed by authors to assess help seeking behavior in schizophrenia patients and its sociodemographic and clinical correlates. Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale to identify the presence and severity of symptoms.


RESULTS
A total of 41.8% sought traditional healers first, 58.1% sought a psychiatric consultation first, main symptoms related to traditional healers seeking were hallucinations in 51.5%, delusions 29.9%, 9.28% bizarre behavior and 9.28% formal though disorder. Main causes of traditional healers' preference were society acceptance 30.39%, affordability 24.74% and accessibility 16.49%.


CONCLUSION
This study shows that a significant percentage of the patients suffering from schizophrenia prefer to approach faith healers first due to their own beliefs, society acceptance, affordability and easy accessibility.
['Ibrahim Awaad|Mona|M|', 'Mohsen Ibrahim|Nesreen|N|', 'Naguib|Rehab Mohamed|RM|', 'Khalil|Sherien Ahmed|SA|0000-0003-2984-0292', 'Elhabiby|Mahmoud|M|', 'Khaled Mohamed|Zainab|Z|']
D000293:Adolescent D000328:Adult D001294:Attitude to Health D003702:Delusions D004534:Egypt D029221:Faith Healing D005260:Female D006212:Hallucinations D006801:Humans D008297:Male D008514:Medicine, Arabic D008875:Middle Aged D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care D012559:Schizophrenia D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires D055815:Young Adult
Traditional healers pathway to care schizophrenia psychiatric service