ArticleAfrican health sciences2021
Towards a better understanding of attitudes and beliefs held by traditional healers and recipients of traditional medicine concerning mental health conditions in post-conflict Liberia: a qualitative investigation.
Article in African health sciences, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Effectiveness, barriers, and facilitators of interventions delivered by traditional healers for the treatment of common mental disorders: A systematic review.Transcultural psychiatry · 2024Pooled it
- When the war never ends: conceptual limitations, contextual differences and implications for interventions in continuous traumatic stress in Sub-Saharan Africa.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Article
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13 authors.
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Abstract
backgroundA better understanding of attitudes and beliefs held by traditional healers and utilizers of traditional medicine concerning mental health conditions in Liberia is important as Liberia seeks to improve its delivery of mental healthcare in the context of scarce resources and recovery from civil war.
methodsA qualitative research design was used to collect data from 24 Liberian traditional healers, and 11 utilizers of Liberian traditional medicine. Participants were queried about mental health problems in Liberia, treatments, and attitudes towards modern healthcare. Qualitative data were probed and aggregated using content analysis.
resultsMental health problems described by study participants included: Open Mole, African Science, Epilepsy, Depression and Mental Illness (trauma/substance use). Mental health problems were often associated with socioeconomic distress, and participants described their attitudes and beliefs concerning mental healthcare, traditional medicine, and modern healthcare.
conclusionTraditional medicine is an important part of mental healthcare in Africa. Mental illness, social factors, and healthcare access were important problems in Liberia. Mental health problems blended local cultural beliefs with Westernized nosology and social factors. Traditional healer's attitudes towards Western medicine reflected ambivalence. There is a desire for collaboration with 'modern' health care providers, but this will require reciprocal trust-building.
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