Complementary treatment of psychotic and epileptic patients in malaysia.

Full Abstract

The objective of this article is to describe and compare the use of traditional/complementary medicine (T/CM) among psychotic (schizophrenia and schizophreniform disorder) and epileptic Malay patients in peninsular Malaysia. There were 60 patients in each group. T/CM consultation was uniformly spread across all levels of education and social status. We could not find a single over-riding factor that influenced the decision to seek T/CM treatment because the decision to seek such treatment was complex and the majority of decisions were made by others. Fifty-three patients (44.2%), consisting of 37 (61.7%) psychotic and 16 (26.7%) epileptic patients had consulted Malay traditional healers (bomoh) and/or homeopathic practitioners in addition to modern treatment; of these, only three had consulted bomoh and homeopathic practitioners at the same time. The use of T/CM was significantly higher in psychotic than in epileptic Malay patients.

Author information

Author/s: Razali, Salleh Mohd (SM); Yassin, Azhar Mohd (AM);

Affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Kelantan, Malaysia. mrazali(-atsign-)kb.usm.my

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article

Journal: Transcultural psychiatry (Transcult Psychiatry), published in England. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2008-Sep; vol 45 (issue 3) : pp 455-69

Dates: Created 2008/09/18; Completed 2008/12/19;

PMID: 18799643, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 2/18/2009, IMS Date: 18 Feb 2009 00:00:00)

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