practice of traditional therapies in psychiatric environment: study about 100 cases

ABSTRACT

In all the communities, parallel forms of healing continue to be practised by the population in addition to the services offered by the [modern] psychiatry. The aim is to examine the current state of the traditional therapy in Tunisia and to try to deal with its scope, profile and determinants surveying the population of mentally ill patients. It is about a specific study carried out on 100 consecutive patients having consulted the service of psychiatry [C] of Hospital [RAZI] in Tunis. All the patients having an intellectual deficiency were excluded. We proceeded by a semi-open questionnaire in dialectical Arabic. 90 patients, composed of 38 women [42.2%] and 52 men [57.8%] at the age of 37.8 years in average, were kept in our study. 50% of our patients had recourse to the traditional therapy, 70% of whom before consulting a psychiatrist. This behaviour was not influenced by the age, the profession and the educational level. In 75% of the cases, it was chosen under the effect of the opinion of a member of the family. 1/3 of the patients having had consulted a traditional therapist have improved after his intervention. These are the patients who were convinced of the diagnosis identified by the traditional therapist. The therapeutic observance and the adherence to the modern psychiatry were not influenced by the recourse to the traditional therapy. At the end of this research, we conclude that in Tunisia the recourse to the traditional therapy still persists and continues to perform its function. It makes us think about the necessity to accept its place in the devices for treatment of the mentally ill patients and why not to collaborate with it