Socio-Economic Status and Mental Disorder— Profile of a Nigerian Psychiatric Inpatient Population

Abstract

A study of the socio-economic and diagnostic profile of psychiatric patients treated at a mental hospital in Nigeria over a period of six months was conducted. Schizophrenia, organic psychosis, and mental sub-normality were found to have been diagnosed more often among under privileged persons from lower socio-economic classes; while affective disorder (manic depression) and neurotic illness were commoner among persons from economically more fortunate higher social classes. Males exceeded females in the cohort and the patients generally exhibited upward social mobility when compared with their parents. Possible socio-cultural factors contributing to the findings have been discussed. A suggestion is made for a more elaborate field work to study the relationship between socio-economic class and psychopathology in a developing country like Nigeria.

Depressive Symptomatology and Short-Term Stability at a Nigerian Psychiatric Care Facility

“…The patients in this study had socio-demographic characteristics similar to those of previous psychiatric hospital studies in this hospital [25] and elsewhere in the country [26,27].…”

Country profile: intellectual and developmental disability in Nigeria

“…Despite this economic growth, the Nigerian National Bureau of Statistics said that 60.9 per cent of Nigerians were living in absolute poverty in 2010 [1]. Arguably, many people with IDD and other disabilities in Nigeria will be living in such conditions (Ihezue et al, 1986). Epidemiological research in developed countries has consistently reported an association between poverty and the prevalence of less severe IDD (Emerson, 2007).…”

Family quality of life in Nigeria

“…The degree to which these factors affect perceptions of disability is largely unknown, since there is very little published research or other scholarly literature on ID in Nigeria (Njenga 2009). A 1985 study found that ID was more commonly diagnosed in Nigerians from lower socio‐economic groups, and suggested several socio‐cultural factors that might explain this (Ihezue et al . 1986).…”

“…The degree to which these factors affect perceptions of disability is largely unknown, since there is very little published research or other scholarly literature on ID in Nigeria (Njenga 2009). A 1985 study found that ID was more commonly diagnosed in Nigerians from lower socio-economic groups, and suggested several socio-cultural factors that might explain this (Ihezue et al 1986). The same year, Mbubaegbu (1985) studied socio-cultural attitudes towards 'the mentally retarded' in Nigeria and found that the various cultural backgrounds resulted in different attitudes and treatment of people with what are now called ID and that, in general, children with ID were seen as 'worthless beings'.…”