A retrospective review of lifetime prevalence of traditional healer consultation by an outpatient of Xhosa schizophrenia sufferers

Abstract

AIM: To describe the demographic and clinical characteristics of a group of patients of Xhosa ethnicity diagnosed with schizophrenia. To also determine the prevalence of their consultations with a traditional healer as well as the factors associated with an increased likelihood of such consultations. METHOD: The study was a review of a database originally compiled as part of an ongoing genetic study. Patients on the database were all of Xhosa ethnicity, with a diagnosis of schizophrenia and had all been recruited from community clinics and psychiatric hospitals in the Cape Town Metropole region. RESULTS: Data was extracted and analysed for 92 patients, who met the criteria for inclusion in this study. The majority of the patients were male (77.2%), single (88%) and unemployed (96%). The mean duration of illness was 20.5 years and the mean number of hospital admissions for their mental illness was 2.4. Close to half (43.5%) of the patients reported being non-compliant on their medication. Ten percent admitted to making one or more suicide attempts in their lifetime. Nicotine was the most commonly used substance (69.6%) followed by alcohol (55.4%), cannabis (37%) and methamphetamines (9.8%). Thirty eight percent of the patients reported having a traditional healer in their family. Twenty two percent had consulted with a traditional healer. In the bivariate analysis the following factors were significantly associated with consulting a traditional healer: having two or less psychiatric admissions (p=0.014); compliance on medication (p=0,012); and having a traditional healer in the family iii (p=0.005). When controlling for age, sex and marital status only having a traditional healer in the family was significantly associated with consulting traditional healer (p=0.011). CONCLUSIONS: This study found that a high proportion of the participants had consulted a traditional healer. This was significantly associated with having a traditional healer as a family member. It is recommended that programmes, to improve the mutual understanding and co-operation between Western practitioners and traditional healers and consequently mental health outcomes, need to be developed and implemented.