Abstracts

Rationale: It has been acknowledged that religious and complementary therapies are commonly practiced among South Asian, Indian and African communities (1-4) . In Saudi Arabia, the holy lands , as religion is prevailing in the community , some people belief that epilepsy is caused by Jinn and has to be cured by non medical therapy. However, this interferes with medical treatment and would certainly result in serious consequences to patients, their families and society. As per our practice, some patients had serious problems, like disabilities, burns, car accidents and death, as a result of stopping or not accepting medications .Unfortunately this happened even among religious, well educated people . Up-to-date there is no scientific documentation about the extent of the problem and its impact on the Saudi society. Therefore, the misconception that epilepsy is caused by Jinn is great health concern and has to be addressed, corrected and changed by proper means . Methods: This is a qualitative study. A questionnaire was designed to study how much knowledge the community has about epilepsy and their beliefs about Jinn as a cause of epilepsy. The questionnaire also explores the demographic characteristics in each region such as gender,; employment, education and questions relating to attitudes towards epilepsy. Data will be collected from male and female volunteers above age of 15-years ,who can understand and answer the questions listed in the questionnaire, All geographical regions of the kingdom, central, west, east, north and south will be included in the study. Results: At present, 700 volunteers, from the eastern and central regions, of both sexes, with age range of 15 -72 years, were randomly enrolled. Preliminary results collected from the study population showed that 30% of the responders belief that epilepsy is caused by Jinn. However, 10 - 12 % of the responders in the eastern and central regions, respectively, indicated that epilepsy should be treated by religious therapies and no place for medical therapy. Conclusions: Although Riyadh is a densely populated (7 million), multicultural and highly civilized city, a significant percentage of the population holds the belief that epilepsy is caused by Jinn. This study clearly document the magnitude of the misconception about epilepsy in the Saudi community .Therefore, further research is needed to study other socioeconomical contributory factors.