Rubina Aslam, Ahsan Numan.
A Survey Of Attitudes And Beliefs Of Care givers Towards Patients Suffering From Schizophrenia.
Esculapio J Services Inst Med Sci Jan ;7(2):13-5.

Objective: To explore the ideas and attitudes of care givers towards patients suffering from schizophrenia with the help of survey form formulated after group discussion with a focus group of families, which was later used to gather information from a larger sample. Material & Methods: This study was conducted at Neuro Clinic, Johar Town, Lahore, over a period of six months from March 2009 to August 2009. Rural as well as urban population is equally represented in sample. Afocus group, comprising of ten patients and their care givers, who were attending for the last two years for follow-up participated in a group discussion and a survey form was formulated on the basis of this to explore the beliefs and attitudes of care givers of patients suffering from schizophrenia. In the next stage this form was used during the study period on all those care givers who consented to participate in the survey. Results: Majority of care givers were females (82.6%) and had no formal education. Majority (almost 50%) of them believed in supernatural causes. Other believed in psychological factors (14%), physical as well as psychological (11%), physical reasons alone (8.5%), physical and supernatural (7%), malingering (7%) and inheritance (2.8%). Nearly 93% respondents believed that treatment is possible in this illness; however there were variations in people's beliefs about treatment modality. Conclusion: Nearly half of the study participants believed in non scientific and supernatural causes of schizophrenia. There is a need to establish community based mental health services that can impart psycho-eductional interventions at the level of community and families.

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