Patients who seek traditional magico-religious treatments: Are they different from patients who seek medical treatments? A case-control study

Introduction: A patient’s decision to seek help for mental health symptoms (and from who) depends on a number of socio-demographic and illness related factors, as well as accessibility and affordability of care. Traditionally magico-religious healers have constituted an important source of health-care for a significant proportion of mentally ill patients in India. The concern however, is that these consultations may also delay patients en route their pathway to medical or psychiatric care- thus potentially adding to the duration of untreated illness and associated poor outcomes. Aims: The present study aimed to examine whether patients who seek traditional magico-religious treatments were different from those who seek medical or mental health care for their symptoms. Methodology: Ninety-one patients were recruited from the Outpatient and emergency departments of the Institute of Medical Psychology, Asha hospital in Hyderabad, Telangana. After gaining informed consent, carers (key informants) for these patients were interviewed to enquire about the patient’s first and subsequent care contacts, as well as for a number of background socio-demographic and illness details. Subjects whose first contact was with a traditional magico-religious healer were compared with subjects who sought help from a medical or mental health professional (psychiatrist/ physician/ registered or unregistered medical practitioner/ medical specialist/ community nurse) for their symptoms. Results: Thirty three (36.3%) of the subjects had sought care from magico-religious healers in the first instance. The rest (63.7%) consulted various other healthcare providers like medical practitioners, psychiatrists, medical specialists like neurologists, community nurses/ social workers, etc. Subjects who sought care from magico-religious healers were similar to those did not, with respect to their age, sex-distribution, residence, social status and incomes, but the latter group was more educated than the former (p