Investigated patient attitudes toward traditional healing and modern medical treatment in Saudi Arabi151 patients (mean age 29 yrs) attending the psychiatric clinic at the King Khalid University Hospital for the first time were asked about their experiences concerning traditional healing using a specifically designed data-gathering sheet. Women used traditional medicine more often, but education and employment did not seem to play a role in the choice of traditional medicine over modern medicine. The most common traditional diagnosis was the evil eye, and the most rendered treatment was reading the Koran. Both traditional and psychiatric diagnoses were equally distributed in both sexes and psychiatrists did not seem to agree with traditional healers in grouping certain symptoms to form a diagnosis. Also, psychiatric disorders were found to have a similar distribution in traditional and non-traditional medicine users.