Quality of life among patients with common mental disorders attending monk healers and primary care clinics in Thailand

Abstract

PurposeCommon mental disorders are not only highly prevalent in primary health-care settings but also negatively affect patients’ quality of life (QoL). This study aims to assess the levels of QoL among patients with common mental disorders seeking care from a monk healer or primary care setting and to determine the comparative QoL of users in two different types of care settings in Thailand.Design/methodology/approachConsecutively attending clients or patients (N = 1251) of three faith healing or three health centres were assessed with measures of depression, anxiety and somatization disorder and QoL.FindingsThe overall QoL was 67.8 and among the four QoL domains, social QoL was the highest (72.3), followed by physical QoL (69.4), environmental QoL (64.8) and psychological QoL (64.6). In adjusted linear regression analyses, sociodemographic factors, such as higher educational level, being employed, having high debt and consulting a health centre, were associated with higher overall QoL. Compared to being a client with a monk healer, patients at a health centre had a higher overall QoL, environmental and psychological QoL. Having a general anxiety or major depressive disorder was negatively associated with overall QoL and all four QoL sub-domains, whereas somatization disorder was not associated with any QoL sub-domains.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to investigate QoL in common mental disorder attenders with a monk healer in comparison with primary care patients. Primary care patients with a common mental disorder had significantly higher overall QoL (p<0.01), higher psychological QoL (p<0.001) and higher environmental QoL (p<0.001) than clients with a common mental disorder attending monk healers. This study extends previous research showing a negative association between anxiety and depressive disorders and QoL calling for integration of QoL in the management of common mental disorders in both complementary and public primary care in Thailand.