Spiritual and Religious Healing Practices: Some Reflections from Saudi National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, Riyadh

Abstract

Traditional practices constituting spiritual and religious (S/R) healing are an important component of the holistic healthcare model and are used in health, well-being, and treating a variety of diseases around the world. The main focus of this review is to summarize the Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) studies that especially target S/R healing practices in Saudi Arabia (SA) and discuss the results in light of relevant international literature. From year 2013-2017, electronic searches of PubMed, OvidSP, Google Scholar, and two publishing housing Web sites (Sciencedomain.com and Dove Medical Press.com) were made using key words and Boolean operators and retrieved thousands of published papers from peer-reviewed journals. Two independent reviewers decided to include a total of 108 articles: 48 from SA and 60 from other international literature. The sociodemographic variables of the participants varied in local studies and were comparable with international data. The frequency and types of religious and spiritual practices reported in local and international zones varied in accordance with religious belief, gender, age, education, and prevalent chronic diseases. Most of professionals and practitioners showed fairly good knowledge and positive attitude toward spiritual and religious practices used in diverse clinical and non-clinical situations across the world. Furthermore, it was observed that in the international scenario, S/R researches using specific religious screening tools have been conducted on different aspects of clinical application including self-care, social cohesion, negative impact, and child development, whereas regional studies targeting varied participants mainly focused on the epidemiological trends of S/R therapies in Saudi Arabia. CAM practitioners and public tend to show great interest in prescribed and self-use of religious and spiritual therapies across the world because of multiple dynamic forces, including positive effects on health, sense of well-being and disease control, cost-effectiveness, easy access to services, and improvement in quality of life. Further studies are needed to assess the effectiveness of different types of religious and spiritual therapies and practices used in specific diseases, their role in promotion of health and well-being, and prevention of diseases nationwide and across the world. Besides integration of S/R into mainstream treatment modalities, medical education curriculum, continuous medical education, and training programs are needed for bridging the knowledge, attitude, and practice gaps concerning CAM in targeted population groups such as medical professionals, CAM practitioners, medical students, public and traditional healers, not only in SA but also around the world.

Mental Health Awareness Phone Polling Survey: Focus on Community Knowledge, Attitude and Practice, Saudi Arabia

“…The community participants in MH surveys often report multiple diverse complex help seeking pathways [63] as also found in this crosssectional survey, and most commonly participants tend to consult psychiatrists (44%) and religious faith healers (40%) and others including psychotherapists. Psychotherapy is not commonly used in Saudi MH care setting because most forms are westernized models which are culturally not accepted and therapist encounters some other barriers as found in some studies [64,65].In Saudi context, a larger population with or without a MH problem and physical diseases consult religious faith healers and also auto-medicate/treat themselves using traditional herbs and roqaya and drinking ruqyarecited water, i.e., reciting holy Quran and blowing on themselves and into water [66]. Community participants perceived several barriers including high cost and unawareness of psychiatric services, no MH clinics in public general hospitals, unavailability of beds, being ashamed and stigma accessing to mental health hospitals and related services in Saudi Arabia [30,53] supporting the findings of other studies [67,68].…”

Re-reading Ruqyah: Comprehensive Analysis of Ruqyah within Hadith, Medicine, and Psychological Perspective

“…The practice of ruqyah is marked by dhikr or prayer, saying words of praise (ta'awudz), forgiveness (istigfar), or recitation of the Holy Qur'an, which repeatedly by opening meetings about God (the transcendental) and hoping for healing their disease or suffering. From a psychological perspective, the practice of medicine or ruqyah therapy can be understood in a variety of psychology concepts of self-healing, [31] religious and-or spiritual healing [32], [33], and meditation [34], [35], [36]. In general, this concept uses transpersonal, which emphasizes spirituality and religion in humanistic psychotherapy.…”

Psychotropic Medications Weight Gain: A Clinical Dilemma Looked Through the Lens of Therapeutic Challenges, Complementary Approaches and Pharmacotherapies

“…This includes gene expression, a reduction in appetite, food intake, ghrelin hormone that stimulates hunger, insulin resistance, fatty synthesis and an increase in GLP-1 and thermogenesis that are mediated by enteric and central nervous systems [134][135][136][137][138][139][140]. From a cultural perspective, numerous herbs (Table 9) have an impact on overweight and obesity [135][136][137][138][139][140][141]. Overall, herbs and natural products used in different traditional medical systems since ancient times.…”