Beliefs about causes of schizophrenia among family members: A community-based survey in Bali

Objective: This community-based study investigated causal beliefs regarding schizophrenia among families of individuals in Bali who screened positive for schizophrenia and examined how their beliefs were related to the individual's psychiatric treatment status. Methods: Causal beliefs of 39 key relatives were examined: 19 of the individuals with schizophrenia had received psychiatric medical treatment and 20 had never received such treatment. A questionnaire developed by the authors that listed 15 possible causes of schizophrenia was used to examine the respondents' beliefs. Results: Key relatives attributed supernatural causes to schizophrenia more often than natural causes. Compared with relatives who listed a natural cause as most important (14 relatives, or 36 percent), relatives who considered a supernatural cause as being the most important (25 relatives, or 64 percent) had a significantly higher mean age and less education and were more likely to have family members with schizophrenia who had never received psychiatric medical treatment. Conclusions: Families' attribution of supernatural causes was strongly related to no receipt of psychiatric medical treatment by the individual with schizophrenia.