الفهرس 
MAJOR DEPRESSIVE DISORDEROnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Background: The diagnosis and treatment of an illness using traditional medicine is in most cases culture-specific and based on beliefs in the community. The majority of mentally ill patients prefer to attend to traditional healers because of the trust problems in the system, affordability, accessibility, and ease of the service.
Aim and objectives: the aim of the study was to figure out the rate of traditional healers’ consultation done by patients with major depressive disorder, and to assess the sociodemographic and clinical correlates of patients who seek help from traditional healers in their pathway to psychiatric services.
Subjects and methods: This was a cross sectional study; was conducted on 200 patients diagnosed with major depressive disorder according to Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, Text Revision (DSM-IV-TR) in 1 year time interval. This study was conducted in the outpatient clinics of Institute of psychiatry - Ain Shams University Hospital (El-Demerdash Hospital), Ain Shams University.
Results: there was statistically significant difference between seeking advice of traditional healers before and Sex, Age, Religion, Education, Social status, Residence and Duration of illness. There was statistically insignificant difference between seeking advice of traditional healers before and Occupation. There was highly statistically significant difference between seeking advice of traditional healers before and HDRS.
Conclusion: traditional healers play a role in the pathway of treatment among patients with major depressive disorder Therefore; it is highly recommended that there is a need for awareness programs aiming traditional healers so that they are better able to recognize the severity of mental illness and to subsequently refer these cases to the psychiatrist on time.