The perceived effectiveness of traditional and faith healing in the treatment of mental illness: a systematic review of qualitative studies

Watt, Alberta S. J. van der; Water, Tanya van de; Nortje, Gareth; Oladeji, Bibilola D.; Seedat, Soraya; Gureje, Oye

doi:10.1007/s00127-018-1519-9

Cited by 57 publications

(53 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…To better synthesize and to visualize the connections among our findings, the relevant cultural context, and the gaps in knowledge, we hypothesized an overall pathways to healing model relating traditional healers to mental health in Nepal (Figure 4). We fit our results within the broader literature on traditional healers and mental well-being in Nepal and highlighted the current gaps in knowledge both below and in our model (Nortje et al 2016;van der Watt et al 2018). However, we must again emphasize the overall heterogeneity within Nepal's cultural makeup.…”

Section: Pathways To Healingsupporting

confidence: 77%

“…The prior literature relating Nepali traditional healers and psychotherapy is immense (Nortje et al 2016;van der Watt et al 2018), and Nepal's rich history of traditional healers alone merits a systematic review. Within Nepal's literature, the Nepali traditional healer, like conventional psychotherapists, is said to express empathy for their patients.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Few studies have blended the need for rich ethnographic data with standardized psychological observational tools. Furthermore, few studies have teased out which components of the traditional healer's intervention contribute to their perceived effectiveness (Nortje et al 2016;van der Watt et al 2018). Such components may possess value in multiple contexts and merit further investigation within countries where abundant traditional healers are thought to possess psychotherapeutic value, mental health resources are scarce, and selfhood differs from the modern west (Anheier and Isar 2010;Everett 2012;Patten 2014).…”

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confidence: 99%

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Satisfaction in the Soul: Common Factors Theory Applied to Traditional Healers in Rural Nepal

Pham¹,

Koirala

Kohrt

2020

Ethos

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To explore the relationship between traditional healers and conventional psychotherapy, we conducted a combined ethnographic study and structured observational rating of healers in the middle hill region of central Nepal. We conducted in‐depth interviews and ethnographic observations of healing with 84 participants comprising 29 traditional healers and 55 other community members. Overall, our observations and participant responses yielded a range of interventions that improved health through belief, satisfaction in the soul, social support, transference, and symbolic narration. The findings from our overall ethnography suggest that healers offer a platform for their patients to accept a disease state, cope with it, and to experience palliation of distress. We additionally focused on one participant who saw multiple healers for a case study, during which we rated healing behavior using an observational measure of empathy, emotional validation, and therapeutic alliance. Using this measure, healers who were perceived as successful, scored high on alliance, empathy, promoting expectations of recovery, and use of cultural models of distress. The results of our structured observation suggest healers draw upon processes also observed in psychotherapy. Further research is needed to explore if these practices can be generalized to healers in other parts of Nepal and other settings.

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Section: Pathways To Healingsupporting

confidence: 77%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Satisfaction in the Soul: Common Factors Theory Applied to Traditional Healers in Rural Nepal

Pham¹,

Koirala

Kohrt

2020

Ethos

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“…There are a number of factors that cause delay in getting the right at the first instance for psychiatric problems and these include sociocultural profiles, level of education, the attitude of family/society toward mental illnesses, the perceptions, myths, beliefs, stigmas attached with psychiatric disorder and the availability/accessibility of psychiatric services along with referral patterns and religious views including approach to faith healers (van der Watt et al, 2018). In LMIC, there is the problem of age old cultural myths, demonic and supernatural explanations of psychiatric disorders and the need to visit faith healers and places of worship seeking a cure for mental illness.…”

Section: Challenge 9 -Faith Healing and Cultural Considerationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Psychological interventions during COVID-19: Challenges for low and middle income countries

Sousa

Mohandas

Javed³

2020

Asian Journal of Psychiatry

115

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Elsevier has created a COVID-19 resource centre with free information in English and Mandarin on the novel coronavirus COVID-19. The COVID-19 resource centre is hosted on Elsevier Connect, the company's public news and information website. Elsevier hereby grants permission to make all its COVID-19-related research that is available on the COVID-19 resource centre-including this research content-immediately available in PubMed Central and other publicly funded repositories, such as the WHO COVID database with rights for unrestricted research re-use and analyses in any form or by any means with acknowledgement of the original source. These permissions are granted for free by Elsevier for as long as the COVID-19 resource centre remains active.

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“…Many studies of traditional healers encourage such collaboration to improve patient care [56]. In a systematic review by Van der Watt (2018), which includes sixteen articles, it is concluded that participants perceived traditional healers to be effective in treating mental illness, especially when combined with biomedical treatment [57]. This may be the result of meeting the spiritual needs of participants with some religious interventions and offering an explanation for the aetiology of mental disorders.…”

Section: Attitude (Did Not Specify)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Psychosocial family interventions for relatives of people living with psychotic disorders in the Arab world: systematic review

et al. 2020

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Background: Family interventions in schizophrenia are evidence based and have been adapted to different cultural settings to improve their effectiveness and acceptability. The Arab world has a unique set of socio-cultural norms and values that cannot be ignored when developing or implementing such interventions. There is a lack of research on the feasibility of delivering family interventions for schizophrenia in the Arab region. The aim of this review is to synthesise the available evidence about culturally-adapted psychosocial family interventions in the Arab world. The review identifies the content and characteristics of these interventions, determines the strategies used to adapt them to Arab culture successfully, assesses the feasibility and acceptability of the interventions, and evaluates the effectiveness of these interventions for service users and their families. Method: Five electronic databases were searched including MEDLINE, CINAHL, Cochrane Library, PsycINFO and EMBASE for articles written in Arabic and English from inception to August 2019. Data were extracted and synthesised narratively. Results: Six studies were retrieved from the search: three randomised control studies, two non-randomised studies and one qualitative study. There is limited evidence about culturally-adapted family interventions in the Arab region. However, the cultural adaptation process was comprehensive, and the implementation was reported to be feasible and acceptable. The methodological quality of the included studies was generally poor, so there is a risk of underestimating the effect size of the interventions due to lack of rigour and the presence of bias. Conclusion: The present review provides the foundation for future work regarding family interventions in the Arab world, and confirms the feasibility of implementing such interventions with some modifications. Furthermore, the data suggests that any family-oriented intervention for schizophrenia is likely to be better than standard care in improving the outcome for patients and their families.

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The perceived effectiveness of traditional and faith healing in the treatment of mental illness: a systematic review of qualitative studies

Abstract: Patients will continue to seek treatment from traditional and/or faith healers for mental illness if they perceive it to be effective regardless of alternative biomedical evidence. This provides opportunities for collaboration to address resource scarcity in low to middle income countries.

Cited by 57 publications

References 39 publications

Satisfaction in the Soul: Common Factors Theory Applied to Traditional Healers in Rural Nepal

Satisfaction in the Soul: Common Factors Theory Applied to Traditional Healers in Rural Nepal

Psychological interventions during COVID-19: Challenges for low and middle income countries

Psychosocial family interventions for relatives of people living with psychotic disorders in the Arab world: systematic review

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