Following the announcement of Traditional and Complementary Medicine Act 2013, Muslim faith healers are slowly gaining grounds to make their practice mainstream. One of the major characteristics of Muslim faith healers is the strong inclination to attribute mental illnesses to Jinn possession (demonic possession). Unlike other traditional healers, Muslim faith healers’ primary mode of treatment is Ruqyah, an incantation or generally considered as ‘Du’a or prayers. This article is a sharing by a psychiatrist who has been actively engaging with faith healers in order to understand the world of faith healing including the attitude and knowledge of both the healers and clients while attempting to educate them on modern psychiatry based on bio-psycho-socio-spiritual paradigm. The methodology: 1) Involvement in symposium, seminar and focused group discussion, either as participant or as speaker. 2) Collaborating with local spiritual leader to conduct workshop on mental illness in mosques. 3) Writing articles in scientific and popular publications with and without faith healers as the collaborators. 4) Appearing in radio advocating and discussing about the dilemma of mental illness issue from the religious perspectives, and 5) Participate in workshop conducted by Muslim faith healers. As a result, several issues come to the author’s attention. The divisions of Muslim faith healers are rather complicated, for example Malay traditional healers or bomoh should not be categorized in the same group as Muslim faith healers. The oft-quoted ‘Islamic Medicine’ is problematic in view that it is laced with elements of local cultural value and practice which are not necessarily authentically Islamic. Since Malays make up the biggest community in Malaysia, one has to differentiate between Islam and Muslim. Majority of Muslims misunderstood the term Ruqyah as a form of healing exclusively done by the Muslim faith healers. In conclusion, psychiatrists should engage more proactively with faith and spiritual healers in order to curb stigmatization and delay in seeking psychiatric care and treatment.

The world is currently suffering from another episode of respiratory disease pandemic as Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) spares no continent. The disease which is caused by the virus SARS-CoV-2, has so far claimed many lives in multiple countries, including Muslim majority nations like Malaysia and Saudi Arabia. The situation has become a significant public health concern with several measures being carried out in an attempt to break the chain of the virus transmission.  These include the introduction of movement control order and total lock down across the world. The closure of places of worship including mosques have raised concerns and inconvenience to Muslims. Pandemics are not unprecedented in the history of mankind as several documented outbreaks like the plague pandemic in the mid fourteenth century also known as ‘the Black Death’, caused a demographic decline in both Muslim and Christian countries which led to millions of lives loss worldwide. We attempt to identify the parallels between the current COVID-19 pandemic with the experiences of previous Muslim generations, and draw lessons on general and practical responses to pandemics  with special reference to the generation of the Prophet’s companion.

Prader-Willi Syndrome (PWS) is a genetically determined neurodevelopmental disorder occurring in 1 in 15,000 births. PWS is a rare case in Malaysia and a successful approach to its management has not been well reported here. We present a case of a 13-year-old boy with Prader-Willi Syndrome with prominent behavioural disturbances characterised by temper tantrums, compulsive food intake, stubbornness, stealing and impulsivity further complicated by underlying morbid obesity, poorly controlled type 2 diabetes mellitus, hypertension, dyslipidaemia, obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome and intellectual disability. Multidisciplinary approach involving child and adolescent psychiatrist, occupational therapist, counsellor, family therapist, endocrinologist and dietician has shown to improve the patient’s weight, glucose and blood pressure control and most importantly the behavioural disturbances.

Introduction: Medical futility and advanced medical directive are related issues in end-of-life medical decisions that present challenge to doctors and patients in terminal condition and to doctors and family members of patients who are critically ill in the ICU. Materials and Methods: A qualitative study comprises of literature search and an in-depth interview of experts was carried out to determine the clinical situations in medical futility and the ethical considerations from the Islamic perspective that justify forgoing medical treatment and also the practice of advanced medical directives in the country. Results: In such scenarios, clinical data must be interpreted alongside patient values, as well as the physicians’ ethical commitments. From the Islamic perspective, doctors are the authorised person to diagnose medical futility and forgo medical treatment. Forgoing treatment is permissible as long as it conforms to the maqasid and qawaid al-shariah principles that guide the decision-making process. The practice of advanced medical directive is still at its infancy in this country. From the Islamic perspective, upon considering the maqasid and qawaid al-shariah principles, it should be permissible and its practice should be encouraged as it assists the doctors and the surrogate decision-maker to decide to the withdrawal of treatment. Conclusion: Ethical justification on medical futility conforms to the maqasid and qawaid al-shariah principles and forgoing medical treatment is permissible in Islam. Advanced medical directive assists in the decision-making of forgoing treatment in the presence of utility and thus its practice should be promoted.

Introduction: Despite advances in the management of diabetes, the rate of control of diabetes in the population remains modest. Perception of diabetes control is a key to patient empowerment. The aim of this study was to describe the perception of diabetes control among patient with poorly controlled diabetes. Materials and method: A cross sectional study was done involving 276 patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus in the out-patient settings. After obtaining an informed consent, the socio-demography and medical history of each patient was recorded. Their most recent available blood investigations were documented. Patients were then asked on their perception of diabetes control whether it was excellent, moderate or poor. Analyses were descriptive and exploratory. Results: The median age of subjects was 56.0 (48.0,62.0) years old, with a median duration of diabetes of 8 (4,13) years. The median HbA1C was 9.5 (8.3,11.4)% with a fasting blood sugar of 9.7 (7.1,13.8) mmol/L. Despite having poor HbA1C, 28.4% of patients perceived that their diabetes control was excellent; 58.9% perceived moderate and only 12.7% accurately perceived poor control. The reverse relationship between perception of disease and education may indicate that other factors such as effective communication might need to be considered. The absence of association between perception and duration of diabetes may suggest that information given to patient over the years had poor impact on their understanding of disease control. Conclusion: This study demonstrated that there was presence of discordance between perception of diabetes control and HbA1C. Identifying the discordance between perception of diabetes control and HbA1C should be the first step in delivering a personalized diabetes education for patient.