In the Spill o Llibre de les dones, the 15th century writer and physician from Valencia, Jaume Roig, uses the motif of pilgrimage to attack earthly women, particularly women healers. Roig undermines the salutary function of medieval pilgrimage in order to expose worldly women in their effort to harm male pilgrims. Since men cannot rely on earthly women, they must seek a healing encounter with t...

Traditional healers' practices are widespread around the world, yet their diagnostic skills have rarely been investigated. This exploratory study examines whether yachactaitas (Quichua healers) in the Andes identify cases of psychiatric illness in their communities. For over 18 months, ten yachactaitas participated in the identification of 50 individuals with the condition known as llaqui. Medi...

This issue of the International Review of Psychiatry draws attention to the neglected priority of mental health in Africa. While substantial resources have beenmobilized by the international donor community to provide support for HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria on the African continent, the growing burden ofmental, neurological and substance abuse disorders remains largely ignored. This is r...

A large proportion of psychiatric patients in Nigeria seek help from other sources which ultimately lead to treatment delay. Treatment delay could have deleterious effects on treatment outcome especially for people with schizophrenia. The study aimed to determine the socio-demographic characteristics associated with treatment delay in people with schizophrenia. This was a cross-sectional study ...

Traditional medicine, being a significant element in the cultural patrimony, still remains the main recourse for a large majority of people in Dogonland, Mali, for treating various diseases and ailments. This paper reports an ethnopharmacological study in Dogonland with the aim to identify medicinal plants used in the treatment of wounds. Information obtained from traditional healers revealed 7...

Department of Psychology University of Ghana. Legon-Accra School of Counselling and Educational Psychology Indiana University-Purdue University, Indianapolis (IUPUI) Indianapolis, Indiana USA Corresponding Author: Samuel Atindanbila ___________________________________________________________________________ This paper is aimed at describing the practices of African Traditional Healers, highligh...

This study investigated reproductive health beliefs among rural indigenous women in Kakon Haat village at Rajshahi district of Bangladesh. An explanation for the tendency of women in these communities to access traditional healers (THs) and spiritual healers (SHs) for reproductive health services was discovered. Data was collected by means of in-depth one-to-one interviews and focus group discu...