The treatment outcome of psychotic disorders by traditional healers in central Sudan

Abstract

Background: Alternative and traditional healing methods are common and popular in Sudan, particularly for treating people with mental disorders, but little information is available about the outcome of theses traditional healing approaches.

Objectives: To study the outcome of treating patients with psychotic disorders by traditional healers, and to understand the type of services, interventions procedures and treatments methods used by traditional healers to manage patients with psychotic disorders.

Method: A prospective follow-up quantitative study of a cohort of inpatients with psychotic disorders was carried out from admission until discharge. Subjects were people with psychotic disorders undergoing treatment in traditional healer centres in central Sudan. The Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI) was used to diagnose the psychotic disorders and the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) was used to assess the severity of psychotic symptoms on admission and discharge from the traditional healer centre.

Results: We interviewed 129 inpatients with psychotic disorders on admission and discharge from the traditional healers centres. There was a significant reduction in the PANSS score (p = .0001) after a mean period of stay of 4.5 months. The mean for the overall PANSS score was 118.36 on admission and 69.36 on discharge.

Conclusion: Although traditional-healing approaches produce a significant improvement in the signs and symptoms of psychotic disorders measured on the PANSS, they need to be further investigated, assessed and studied.

Keywords: Sudan; Traditional healing; mental disorders; mental health services; psychiatric services; treatment outcome.