Attitudes of Sudanese urban and rural population to mental illness

A systematic sample of 200 Sudanese individuals (100 males and 100 females) attending 4 health centres (2 urban and 2 rural) were interviewed, using standardized vignettes and a structured questionnaire, to explore their attitudes to mental illness and the mentally ill people. Information obtained from 183 (91.5%) of the respondents was analysed. Serious mental illness, represented by schizophrenia, was recognized as such by 76 per cent of both the urban and rural population and psychiatric treatment was suggested for it by more than half of them. About one-third of the respondents though of depression as just over-worry. The least recognition, as mental illness, was for alcoholism especially in the rural areas. More rural people than urban opted for religious healing as a method of treatment. Religious factors and people's concept of mental illness seem to influence their tolerance of deviant behaviour.