الفهرس 
MOVEMENT DISORDERS: A CLINICAL PERSPECTIVEOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
T
o the best of the available literature, data about seeking traditional healers by patients with epilepsy or MDs are lacking in Egypt and to an extent in Somalia.
The current study was conducted on Epilepsy and Movement disorder patients from Egypt and Somalia to determine the prevalence of seeking traditional healers among individuals with epilepsy and MDs during the period from June-2022 to Jan-2023.
The study enrolled a total of 199 cases: 127 from Egypt and 72 from Somalia. 65.8% of them are males and 34.2% are females with a mean age of 40.4.
The study showed that seeking traditional healers is prevalent in the study sample (40.2%). As depicted in the results, when comparing traditional healer’s seekers with traditional healer’s non-seekers, they were different significantly with regard gender, location, level of education, and employment status. On the other hand, they are comparable with regard age, parents’ relationship, and country of living.
Unemployment is higher in the group of traditional healer’s seekers (65.0%) than in the group of non-seekers (54.3%), (p 0.013).
The accessibility to medical services specialized in neurology is significantly different between groups in the current study. Perhaps this is an important reason that should be considered. Despite that both groups have excellent access to medical services in general. the possibility of access to clinic/Hospital specializing in diseases of neurology is significantly different between groups. Only 18.8% of the traditional healer’s seekers group and 79.8% of the non-seekers groups have the possibility of access to clinic/Hospital specializing in diseases of neurology.
Also, the results of thet current study showed that, at the onset of symptoms, more than 90% both groups visited the doctor. However, the proportion of the non-seeker who visited the doctor was higher than that of the seekers group. The proportion of the non-seeker who took a treatment was higher than that of the seekers group. Finally, the proportion of the non-seeker who improved was higher than that of the seekers group. The proportion of the non-seeker who takes compatible medications regulary was higher (99.2%) than that of the seekers group (35.0%), (p < 0.001).
In the current study, the proportion of the non-seekers, who believes that the reason behind their symptoms is envy/ Eye and body /super powers/ Evil spirits/magic, was lower (10.9%) than that of the seekers group (53.8%), (p < 0.001).
About 51.2% of TH seeker groups visited THs upon the influence others and 48.8% upon their own decision. Only 16.2% visited THs because medicines are not available/expensive, 26.2% because medicine failed to cure the disease, 23.8% because they have no access to medical services, and 33.8% because they believe in envy, eye or evil.
According to the results of the current study, 55.0% of TH seekers stated that they are Okay and 45.0% are not Okay. Only 36.2% of the seekers group stated that the THs they visited advised them to take the advice of a doctor. 20.7% of them was referred for medical advice on the first visit; while the other 79.3% did so after more than one visit. Only 5.0% received just herbal medication, 42.5% received just treatment with Quran, and 52.5% received both Quran and herbals.
The results of the current study showed that, only 18 out of the 119 TH non-seekers (15.1%) are planning to seek TH. 13 (72.2%) of them reported that the reason behind that is that they believe in envy, eye, or evil, and only 5 (27.8%) because medicine failed to cure the disease. About half of them 9 (50.0%) stated that they have discussed this option with their doctors.
This study has some limitations. First, it has a quit small sample size (199 cases) which did not for subgroup analysis in a conclusive manner. Second, the questionnaire is adapted from another study without further validation.
In conclusion, the current study has some shred of evidence. The current study showed that seeking traditional healers is still prevalent. Our work showed that seeking traditional healersis more in rural areas, unemployment, females, low educational levels, and lack of facilities with specialization in neurology in rural areas.
Therefore, we recommend the following increasing awareness towards epilepsy and MDs in special groups and demographics as females, rural areas, unemployed persons, those with low educational levels is highly recommended.
Also, we recommend increasing the numbers of facilities with specialization in neurology in rural areas. Finally, we recommend to conduct a large sample size study that allows for subgroup analyses.