‘Why mental illness is on the rise in Nigeria’

What is responsible for the rising cases of mental illness in the country? The burden of mental illness has always been enormous. About 30% of Nigerians suffer from mental illness. Considering the estimated population of 200 million Nigerians, this translates to 60 million persons with mental illness in Nigeria. In other words, Nigeria has more […]

What is responsible for the rising cases of mental illness in the country?

The burden of mental illness has always been enormous. About 30% of Nigerians suffer from mental illness. Considering the estimated population of 200 million Nigerians, this translates to 60 million persons with mental illness in Nigeria. In other words, Nigeria has more persons with mental illness than the population of any West African country.

The causes could be better classified as unmodifiable causes, for example the gene, and modifiable factors such as psychosocial factors.

In recent times, our country has experienced economic adversities for example recession and violent crimes like kidnapping, terrorism and most recently armed banditry. These factors, coupled with diminishing supportive environment engendered by distortion of our traditional extended family network and lack of neighborhood cohesion as a result of westernization, reduce our resilience and increase our vulnerability to mental illness.

What is depression, how can it be managed?

Depression is one of the severe mental disorders characterized by three core symptoms of low mood or sad feelings, loss of interest in activities previously enjoyed and getting tired easily. These symptoms and others that will be listed shortly should occur nearly every day for at least two weeks. This last sentence is to differentiate it from normal fluctuations in the mood that can occur in normal individuals.

Other symptoms include: changes in appetite (low or high), changes in sleep (poor or excessive), changes in weight (loss or gain), difficulty concentrating (what many patients report as memory lapses), feelings of guilt or blaming self unnecessarily, feelings of inferiority, worthlessness, hopelessness and pessimistic view of self, the future and the society, and recurrent thoughts of harming self, suicidal attempts among others.

I suggest that if you feel this way, you should see your doctor preferably a psychiatrist or a family physician for further evaluation and treatment. However, for completeness, treatment is usually a combination of medications and psychological treatment.

The high rate of suicide, especially among young people in Nigeria is becoming worrisome, how can it be addressed?

Suicide has always been with us in Nigeria. However, because of the cultural impediments (being seen as a taboo), it was under-reported. However, with the improvement in communication with the social media, suicide cases are now easily shared to a vast majority of people. According to WHO, 1 million suicides occur annually. 90% of them are related to depressive disorder. This means that one suicide death occurs every 40 seconds worldwide. The age group at maximal risk is 15-45 years.

Many reasons have been given; untreated mental illnesses especially depression, other psychosocial factors e.g., unemployment, natural and man-made disasters

Another one is irresponsible media reporting: Many times people with suicidal ideas don’t know how to go about it. Remember that the Lagos Lagoon has always been there until the popular reporting of the doctor that jumped into the Lagoon. This made it appealing and persons which such thoughts have been jumping inside the lagoon since that incident that had wide media coverage.

Other factors include increasing family disharmony, social and economic exclusion etc. It requires a multi-sectoral and multi-disciplinary approach involving various government ministries, agencies and departments especially that of health, labour and employment and other social services to address it.

Measures to improve access to mental health services through community mental health services or primary health care are also key.

There should also be interventions to improve family relationships and neighbourhood cohesion and modification of existing legislations that criminalize attempted suicide.

What are the measures people can take to ensure mental health?

This is what we call positive mental health or positive psychology. In other words, factors that promote joy, happiness, resilience, satisfaction are necessary for good mental health.

In fact, WHO described mental health in a positive sense as “a state of well-being in which an individual realizes his/her own abilities, copes with the normal stresses of life, works productively and fruitfully, and makes a contribution to his/her community”.

Things we can do to promote good mental health are many and include:

– Good obstetric and early childhood care.

– Increased social connectedness which builds social capital and diminishes social isolation and exclusion.

– Reduce violence and discrimination.

– Increased economic participation.

– Good parenting etc.

Do we have enough psychiatric doctors to cater for the huge number of patients with mental illness?

We don’t have enough psychiatric doctors. Not just psychiatrists alone, the mental health personnel in Nigeria are grossly inadequate. I mean clinical psychologists, mental health nurses, occupational therapists, speech therapists and social workers.

The WHO recommends one psychiatrist to 10,000 population. As at 2014, in Nigeria we had one psychiatrist to 1.7 million population.

How do you intend to tackle the crisis in your hospital

We have already settled down to work. At present, there is no crisis. I was warmly welcomed and I can say that this hospital has great men and women who are ready to work provided there is peaceful environment.I am a leader and not a boss. I will carry everyone along and no one will be denied of his or her right. We will work as a team and I be the team leader. Every success of failure will be a collective responsibility.