Role of Religious and Cultural Beliefs with regard to Mental Illnesses in India and France
Abstract
Introduction: A little is known about the differences in cross cultural psychiatric disorders among psychiatric patients in India and France. This study was planned with an objective to compare the role of religious and cultural beliefs with regard to mental illnesses in India and France.
Materials and Methods: A Comparative Cross-sectional Study was conducted in Psychiatry Out-Patient Department (OPD) of two hospitals in India and France among subjects aged 18 years and above, attending psychiatric OPDs and diagnosed of mental disorder. Information from 192 patients from India and 185 patients from France was collected. The data collected was analysed using EPI-INFO 2005 software of WHO and SPSS 16.0.
Results: The mean age of the Indian patients was 40.47±12.61 years as against 40.70±12.09 years of the French patients (Student t=-0.184, p=0.854). While 28.1% of the patients in India strongly believed in ghost/ devil/ witchcraft, nearly the same proportion (25.0%) strongly felt that their bad effect could be removed by Tantric/ Ojha/ Samana/Priest. In France, not many patients believed in witchcraft and that the bad effect of it could be removed by Tantric/ Rabbi/ Imam/ Priests. In India, 59.4% (n=114) of the patients believed that mental disorders could be due to witchcraft, on the other hand only 17.3% of the French patients (n=32) thought so (χ2=70.30, p <0.001).
Conclusion: Religious belief system was found to be stronger among the Indian patients as compared to France.
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