Non-Medical Explanations of Neurological Illnesses among Healthcare Professionals (P1.282)

Introduction: Healthcare professionals’ beliefs regarding the causation of mental illness may affect how they practice medicine. In addition to the positivist scientific model of understanding illness, a proportion of the general population use supernatural conceptual frameworks to understand illness. People’s beliefs have been shown to vary according to education, culture, society and the types of illnesses. Neurological disorders often affect personality, behavior, and volition, elements of the human experience often ascribed to immaterial factors. Some evidence exists that this may make it more likely to perceive these ailments as supernatural. In Saudi Arabia, a significant subset of the population reported belief in supernatural causes to be the etiology of epilepsy There have been only few studies focusing on perceptions of neurological illnesses in the Muslim and Arab world. Objective: to determine the prevalence and determinants of non-medical explanations of neurological illnesses among healthcare professionals at a single tertiary care institution. Method: A randomly selected sample of healthcare professionals filled a self-administered newly designed questionnaire focusing on demographic and cultural variables, and beliefs regarding the nature of neurological disorders. Results: We recruited 111 (62 female,68[percnt] Saudi) healthcare professionals. Among them,36[percnt] endorsed the possibility that supernatural causes cause neurological illnesses, and only 26[percnt] of sample clearly rejected that. Supernatural causes endorsed in this study included divine punishment (58[percnt]),divine testing (81[percnt]), demonic influence (63[percnt]),the evil eye (85[percnt]),spells of sorcery (82[percnt]), and unchangeable fate (80[percnt]).Supernatural causes were rejected by only 23[percnt] as possibly causing psychiatric symptoms, and only by 38[percnt] as possibly causing epilepsy. For stroke, multiple sclerosis, neuropathy, and CNS infections, less than 50[percnt] rejected possible causation by supernatural factors. Age, religion, degree of religiosity, and education were modifying factors. Conclusion: Supernatural explanations of neurological symptoms are indeed prevalent among healthcare professionals. This requires further study as to how this affects patient care Disclosure: Dr. Khayat has nothing to disclose. Dr. Milyani has nothing to disclose. Dr. Tayeb has nothing to disclose.