Attitudes Toward Psychological Disorders and Alternative Medicine in Saudi Participants

Mohamed H Alegiry; Nahid H Hajrah; Nada A Y Alzahrani; Hossam H Shawki; Muhammadh Khan; Houda Zrelli; Ahmed Atef; Youngil Kim; Ibrahim A Alsafari; Leila Arfaoui; Hesham F Alharby; Abdulrahman S Hajar; Hesham El-Seedi; Lekh Raj Juneja; Jamal S M Sabir; Abdelfatteh El Omri

doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2021.577103

Attitudes Toward Psychological Disorders and Alternative Medicine in Saudi Participants

Front Psychiatry. 2021 Feb 12:12:577103. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2021.577103. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Mohamed H Alegiry¹, Nahid H Hajrah¹, Nada A Y Alzahrani², Hossam H Shawki^{3

4}, Muhammadh Khan^{1

2}, Houda Zrelli^{1

2}, Ahmed Atef¹, Youngil Kim⁵, Ibrahim A Alsafari⁶, Leila Arfaoui⁷, Hesham F Alharby¹, Abdulrahman S Hajar¹, Hesham El-Seedi⁸, Lekh Raj Juneja⁵, Jamal S M Sabir^{1

2}, Abdelfatteh El Omri^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, King Abdulaziz University (KAU), Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
² Center of Excellence in Bionanoscience Research, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
³ Department of Comparative and Experimental Medicine, Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Nagoya City University, Nagoya, Japan.
⁴ National Gene Bank of Egypt (NGB), Agricultural Research Center (ARC), Giza, Egypt.
⁵ Food Business Promotion Division, ROHTO Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., Osaka, Japan.
⁶ Department of Biology and Department of Chemistry, College of Science, University of Hafr Al Batin, Hafr Al Batin, Saudi Arabia.
⁷ Clinical Nutrition Department, Faculty of Applied Medical Sciences, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
⁸ Pharmacognosy Group, Department of Medicinal Chemistry, Biomedical Centre, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden.

Abstract

Background: This study was designed to investigate Saudis' attitudes toward mental distress and psychotropic medication, attribution of causes, expected side effects, and to analyze participants' expectations toward alternative or complementary medicine using aromatic and medicinal plants, through a survey. Method: The study included 674 participants (citizens and residents in Saudi Arabia) who were randomly contacted via email and social media and gave their consent to complete a questionnaire dealing with 39 items that can be clustered in six parts. Descriptive statistics and Chi-square for cross-tabulation were generated using SPSS. Results: Among the 664 participants, 73.4% believed that there are some positive and negative outcomes of psychotropic medication. Participants (72.0%) think that the most important reason leading to psychological disorders is mainly due to the loss of a relative or beloved person, and 73.9% considered psychic session as one of the possible treatments of psychological disorders. Surprisingly, only 18.8% of the participants agreed that medicinal and aromatic plants could be a possible treatment of the psychological disorder. Participants (82%) consider that physicians are the most trustful and preferred source of information about alternative and complementary medicine.

Keywords: Saudi participants; alternative medicine; psychological disorder; psychopharmacology; survey.