A psychosocial study of Igbo schizophrenic patients treated at a Nigerian psychiatric hospital

Abstract

A study of the sociodemographic and clinical characteristics of schizophrenics of Igbo origin treated at a psychiatric hospital in Nigeria over a period of 6 months was made together with a limited follow-up. Males exceeded females in the proportion of 2:1. About 66% were below the age of 30 years. While there were more married females than single, there were more single males than married. However, single persons on the whole predominated. The majority (61%) were either illiterate or had low education while 52% were either unemployed or unskilled persons. Paranoid and catatonic schizophrenias were the commonest diagnostic subgroups. The short-term prognosis was very good in that 96% were greatly improved at the time of discharge. There was, however, a high dropout rate of 57% over a period of 5 years. Of those still attending, 73% remained improved. The possible sociocultural basis of some of the findings is discussed.

Prevalence, Patterns and Correlates of Schizophrenia among Out-Patient Attendees at Madonna University Teaching Hospital,Elele: A 3-Year Review

“…The largest proportions of the cohort were unemployed (39.2%). This is similar to the reports by other researchers [9][10][11]. While other researchers reported that most of the subjects they studied had no formal education, a greater percentage of our study cohort (42.1%) had secondary education [10,11].…”

“…This is similar to the reports by other researchers [9][10][11]. While other researchers reported that most of the subjects they studied had no formal education, a greater percentage of our study cohort (42.1%) had secondary education [10,11]. Furthermore, most of the subjects were single (58.9%).…”

“…This study identified that paranoid schizophrenia constituted the largest diagnostic entity (47.7%). This is similar to findings from other studies [10]. However, while Kathir et al reported a positive family history of mental illness in majority of his subjects [11] the contrary is true for this study where 51.4% had no record of a family history of mental illness.…”

“…This is similar to the statistics ; however, while there were more males in the cohort of this study (60%), Ihezue reported that females were more preponderant than the males by a ratio of 2:1 in his study (10). The largest proportions of our study cohort were aged 31-40 years (37.4%) unlike the Ihezue study in which 65.7% of the patients were <30 years old [10]. Most of the subjects in this study were Christians (99.1%).…”

Subtypes and Factors of Schizophrenia in an Acutely Ill Nigerian Sample

“…From our clinical experience and research findings in Nigeria, this short-term good clinical outcome for schizophrenia was fully expected. All the other reports of short-term clinical outcome of schizophrenia from northern and southern Nigeria are in agreement with this finding [39][40][41][42]. The only antipsychotic drugs the patients received were the so-called classical or typical neuroleptics.…”