The healthcare-seeking behaviour of schizophrenic patients in Cambodia.

AIMS: To understand the patterns of the schizophrenic patients' healthcare-seeking behaviour (HCSB) in the context of a post-conflict country where psychiatric facilities are scarce. METHODS: Cross-sectional survey assessing schizophrenic patients and their caregivers who consulted for the first time in four different outpatient psychiatric departments. RESULTS: One hundred and four schizophrenic patients were selected: 56.7% began the HCSB with traditional medicine; 22.1% with western medicine, psychiatry included, and 20.2% with religious medicine; 77.3% did not begin the HCSB with psychiatry because they did not know it was a mental problem or because they did not know mental health services existed. The patients' education was the only factor that significantly influenced the HCSB. CONCLUSION: In Cambodia, traditional and religious medicine are the first pathway to mental healthcare when patient and caregiver decide to seek help due to psychotic symptoms. The lack of knowledge on mental health and facilities appears the main reason to explain the schizophrenic patients' HCSB. This suggests that the development of psychiatry in Cambodia will be facilitated by a better spreading of knowledge on mental health and will have to take traditional and religious medicine into account