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‘The threads in his mind have torn’: conceptualization and treatment of mental disorders by neo-prophetic Christian healers in Accra, Ghana

Overview of attention for article published in International Journal of Mental Health Systems, July 2018
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  • In the top 25% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • Good Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (70th percentile)

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Title
‘The threads in his mind have torn’: conceptualization and treatment of mental disorders by neo-prophetic Christian healers in Accra, Ghana
Published in
International Journal of Mental Health Systems, July 2018
DOI 10.1186/s13033-018-0222-2
Pubmed ID
Authors

Lily N. A. Kpobi, Leslie Swartz

Abstract

In many low- and middle-income countries, faith healing is used alongside biomedical treatment for many health problems including mental disorders. Further, Christianity in Africa has seen much transformation in recent decades with the growth of charismatic or neo-prophetic churches whose doctrines include healing, miracles and prophecies. As such, many charismatic pastors have been engaged in faith healing for many years. Such faith healers form a significant portion of the mental health workforce in these countries, partly due to the limited number of biomedically trained professionals. In this study, we sought to examine the beliefs of charismatic/neo-Pentecostal faith healers about mental disorders, as well as to examine the treatments that they employed to treat such disorders. We interviewed neo-prophetic pastors who undertook faith healing, and examined their work relating to mental disorders. Ten pastors from eight churches in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana were interviewed using semi-structured interviews. The data suggest that the pastors' conceptualization of mental illness was generally limited to psychotic disorders. Their beliefs about causation were predominantly supernatural in nature although they acknowledged that drug misuse and road traffic accidents were also potential causes. The pastors' expectations of healing also showed different perceptions of illness chronicity. Their diagnostic and treatment methods revolved around using prayer, prayer aids such as oils and holy water, as well as spiritual counselling for patients and their caregivers. However, they were not opposed to referring patients to hospitals when deemed necessary. We discuss the above results with emphasis on their implications for collaboration between biomedical and alternative healing systems in Ghana. In particular, we advocate a mutual understanding of illness perspectives between biomedical practitioners and faith healers as an important component for integrating different health systems in Ghana.

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Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 97 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Unknown 97 100%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Master 13 13%
Student > Bachelor 11 11%
Student > Doctoral Student 10 10%
Researcher 9 9%
Student > Ph. D. Student 9 9%
Other 20 21%
Unknown 25 26%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Social Sciences 17 18%
Psychology 15 15%
Medicine and Dentistry 10 10%
Nursing and Health Professions 9 9%
Arts and Humanities 4 4%
Other 16 16%
Unknown 26 27%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 6. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 09 August 2018.
All research outputs
#5,805,261
of 23,577,654 outputs
Outputs from International Journal of Mental Health Systems
#334
of 725 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#97,093
of 330,737 outputs
Outputs of similar age from International Journal of Mental Health Systems
#16
of 17 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 23,577,654 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done well and is in the 75th percentile: it's in the top 25% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 725 research outputs from this source. They typically receive more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 8.6. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 53% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 330,737 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 70% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 17 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one is in the 5th percentile – i.e., 5% of its contemporaries scored the same or lower than it.