Khalid Saeed, Ijaz, Malik H. Mubbashar.
Prevalence of Psychiatric Morbidity among the Attendees of a Native Faith Healer at Rawalpindi.
J Coll Physicians Surg Pak Jan ;10(1):7-9.

This study was aimed at determining the prevalence of psychiatric morbidity among attendees of native healers at shrines. One hundred and thirteen attendees were screened using GHQ-12, 56 of the probable cases were interviewed using a semi-structured format in the second stage. About 40% of the total attendees had a psychiatric diagnosis most common being depressive illness, psychosis and epilepsy. There were marked gender disparities in the diagnostic labels, with depression and dissociative disorders being more common in females and psychosis among the males. This study highlights the important role faith healers play in provision of mental health services, particularly in rural areas and there is need to carry out further studies to identify areas of collaboration between the formal mental health services and those being provided by faith healers for benefit of the communities.

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