Introduction: Traditional medicine which includes Islamic faith healing centre is still an important place to seek treatment whether for psychiatric reasons or others. This study aims to determine the prevalence of psychiatric illness among attenders of an Islamic spiritual healing centre and to understand patients’ illness attribution and their religiosity. Methods: A cross-sectional study was done with a systematic random sampling to obtain the prevalence of psychiatric illness which was diagnosed using Malay version of Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (M.I.N.I). Religiosity was measured using Hatta Islamic Religiosity Scale 1996 (HIRS96) and illness perception using Brief Illness Perception Questionnaire (BIPQ). Results: The prevalence of psychiatric illness among the attenders was 53.5%. Depressive disorder were more prevalent (41.5%) followed by anxiety disorder (28.3%), bipolar disorder (16.8%) and psychotic disorders (5.9%). More than half (58.8%) of attenders attributed their illness to supernatural causes but there were no significant difference between those with psychiatric illness and those without in terms of their attribution to supernatural causes, p=0.197.Generally, the patients had a higher religiosity score. Conclusion : This high prevalence shows a need for collaboration with the spiritual healing practitioners to improve delivery of treatment to patient and this would be a more holistic approach.

Introduction: The use of assessment tools to measure postnatal mental illness is essential in healthcare settings. However, variations in the types of tools and their reliability in a particular population lead to under-recognition of mental health status in postnatal mothers. The aim of this review is to evaluate the most recent 10 year of research on the validity and reliability of postnatal mental illness assessment tools. Methods: A literature search of studies from online databases PubMed, Scopus, and Science Direct was conducted. Results: A total of 59 studies were selected for this review. Several studies utilised multiple assessment tools, and a total of 96 assessment tools were identified and classified into six domains: postnatal blues, postnatal stress, postnatal anxiety, postnatal depression, postnatal psychosis, and postnatal psychological disorder. In this review, EPDS was the most common tool used to identify postnatal depression and anxiety while DASS 21 was the most common tool used to identify postnatal psychological disorder. There is a wide range in preponderance of evidence for the reliability of each assessment tool and there were inconsistencies in assessing the validity of the assessment tools. Conclusion This review provides information regarding some of the main assessment tools currently available to measure postnatal mental illnesses. There were no standardised tools that were used in a particular setting. The results may differ in different population because there are differences in not only languages and dialects, but also cultural and racial backgrounds, which greatly influences their perception and interpretation of postnatal mental illness.
Mental Disorders