title: The treatment outcome of psychotic disorders by traditional healers in central Sudan.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Alternative and traditional healing methods are common and popular in Sudan, particularly for treating people with mental disorders, but little information is available about the outcome of theses traditional healing approaches.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To study the outcome of treating patients with psychotic disorders by traditional healers, and to understand the type of services, interventions procedures and treatments methods used by traditional healers to manage patients with psychotic disorders.
  
  
  METHODS
  A prospective follow-up quantitative study of a cohort of inpatients with psychotic disorders was carried out from admission until discharge. Subjects were people with psychotic disorders undergoing treatment in traditional healer centres in central Sudan. The Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI) was used to diagnose the psychotic disorders and the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) was used to assess the severity of psychotic symptoms on admission and discharge from the traditional healer centre.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We interviewed 129 inpatients with psychotic disorders on admission and discharge from the traditional healers centres. There was a significant reduction in the PANSS score (p = .0001) after a mean period of stay of 4.5 months. The mean for the overall PANSS score was 118.36 on admission and 69.36 on discharge.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Although traditional-healing approaches produce a significant improvement in the signs and symptoms of psychotic disorders measured on the PANSS, they need to be further investigated, assessed and studied.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychological Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. sorketti@hotmail.com
authors.forename: Ehab Ali
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Sorketti
authors.forename: Nor Zuraida
authors.initials: NZ
authors.lastname: Zainal
authors.forename: Mohamad Hussain
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Habil
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D016488:Medicine, African Traditional / Q000379:methods*; D008605:Mental Health Services; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011618:Psychotic Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013397:Sudan; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D055815:Young Adult