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Biomedical subjects

N Ndosi

Publications and source records attributed to N Ndosi.

2 recordsLinked to original sources

Electroencephalographic findings in Tanzanian epileptic patients.

Electroencephalogram (EEG) of 524 Tanzanian epileptic patients seen between 1985 and 1987 were reviewed. Over two thirds were young patients between the ages of five and thirty. Four hundred and fifty (86%) had abnormal records. Eighty nine per cent of abnormal records had focal abnormality and 11% had centrencephalic abnormality. Grand mal seizures did not imply centrencephalic abnormality, only 13% had such abnormality. Petit mal seizures are rare, over one third of these had temporal focal abnormality. Partial seizures were associated highly with focal abnormality. However, complex partial seizures did not imply temporal focal abnormality. Implications of EEG findings to correlation with epileptic seizures is discussed.

Adolescent↗

Witchcraft and psychotherapy.

Belief in witchcraft, which serves a variety of social functions and personal defences, is bound to emerge in psychotherapy with individuals from a culture that holds such beliefs; endeavouring to understand it can open up new therapeutic possibilities. The nature of witchcraft, the profiles with which it intrudes into therapy, and the socio-psychological functions it fulfills are considered. Referring such patients to witchdoctors is morally unjustifiable, but the witch-doctor's folk-image provides a floating transference, around which the therapeutic relationship can be built. In dealing with witchcraft-ideation, understanding is based as much on cultural as on personal empathy, and to enhance its relevance, therapy may appropriate some of the functional dynamics of the witchcraft system into its own therapeutic manoeuvres.

Africa↗