An anthropological study of mental health service use in Ghana, published online June 21 in Transcultural Psychiatry, finds that counter to expectations almost all those interviewed had accessed biomedical treatment but many had discontinued antipsychotics. Despite perceived beneficial effects such as controlling aggression or inducing sleep, “unpleasant side effects such as feelings of weakness and prolonged drowsiness conflicted with notions of health as strength and were seen to reduce the ability to work. The reduction of perceptual experiences such as visions was less valued than a return to social functioning. The failure of antipsychotics to achieve a permanent cure also cast doubt on their efficacy and strengthened suspicions of a spiritual illness which would resist medical treatment”
Read, U. “‘I want the one that will heal me completely so it won’t come back again’: The limits of antipsychotic medication in rural Ghana.” Transcultural Psychiatry, online June 21, 2012
The people of Ghana show us the way!
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