Oluwabunmi I D E R A N I M A T A Buhari | University of Ilorin (original) (raw)

Papers by Oluwabunmi I D E R A N I M A T A Buhari

Research paper thumbnail of INTERNET-BASED PSYCHOLOGICAL INTERVENTIONS TO IMPROVE MENTAL HEALTH: PREFERENCE FOR AND WILLINGNESS TO USE AMONG STUDENTS IN A NIGERIAN UNIVERSITY

Objective: To assess the willingness and preference for Internet-Based Mental Health intervention... more Objective: To assess the willingness and preference for Internet-Based Mental Health interventions among university students using a validated selfadministered questionnaire, the Mental Health Literacy Questionnaire (MHLq) and the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12). Design: A cross-sectional multi-staged randomized study. Setting: The setting was the University of Ilorin, Nigeria Subjects: A total of 3,300 undergraduate students were assessed. Main Outcome Measures: The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software was used for data analysis. Descriptive and inferential statistics, and regression analysis to predict factors associated with willingness and preference was done. Level of significance was set at p-value of 0.05 and confidence interval at 95%. Results: Preference for Internet-Based Mental Health intervention compared to Face-to-Face intervention was 27.7% amongst the 3,179 analyzable questionnaires, while 48.6% respondents were willing to use Internet-Based Mental Intervention. Predictors of willingness to use internet-based support were monogamous family setting (aOR= 1.486), help seeking behaviour (aOR= 2.683) and probable mental illness (aOR= 0.333) while predictors of preference for Internet-Based Intervention over Face-to-Face therapy were younger age (aOR= 1.377), female gender (aOR =1.342), satisfactory relationship with mother and father (aOR = 1.607. 1. 466 respectively), self-help strategies (aOR= 0.713) and good knowledge of mental health (aOR =1.610). Conclusion: Internet-Based Interventions is a viable choice for improving university students' mental health. Further studies may explore acceptability and use of different aspects of internet-based interventions.

Research paper thumbnail of A 2 Year (2019-2020) Analysis of Suicide Reports in the Nigerian Media

Proceedings of Global Public Health Conference, May 20, 2022

Suicide is increasingly becoming a public health concern. Reporting and portrayal of suicide in m... more Suicide is increasingly becoming a public health concern. Reporting and portrayal of suicide in media may largely contribute to this. Gaining an insight into the pattern and possible risk factors may help in the design of effective preventive measures. The aim of the study was to generate a 2-year data of suicide reportage in media in Nigeria. This was a retrospective purposive Content analysis of all media suicide reportage in Nigeria between January 2019-December 2020. Data was entered into an excel spread sheet. Duplication was avoided. The statistical package for social sciences, version 22 was used for analysis. Frequencies and percentages of relevant variables were generated. Chi square and Fisher's exact test was used to assess associations. Significant value was set at p<0.05. One hundred and eighteen suicide deaths were identified. Mean age was 30.65+ 12.66 with highest rate among age 20-39 years (51.7%). Majority were males (73.7%). Commonest method used was pesticide ingestion (56.8%) followed by hanging (27.1%). Identifiable associated factors included financial challenges, academic challenges, and relational problems. Pesticide use was commoner among younger age group (p< 0.001) and female sex (p < 0.024). The common use of organophosphates which is used in pesticides may be due to the fact that it is a common household tool used to control insects and rodents in many low-and middle-income countries. It is easy to access and affordable, these coupled with social media reportage makes it a ready tool especially for those already contemplating suicide. The study highlights the current reality of suicides in Nigeria. It brings to the fore, the need for proper surveillance to drive a contextualized approach to suicide prevention.

Research paper thumbnail of Views of primary and secondary school teachers of childhood epilepsy and asthma

Tropical Journal of Health Sciences, 2010

Epilepsy and asthma are 2 common chronic medical conditions that are seen in school-age children.... more Epilepsy and asthma are 2 common chronic medical conditions that are seen in school-age children. Both are characterized by paroxysmal attacks that require prolonged medication and regular clinic attendance. Since teacher's attitudes and perception of chronic condi t ions affect s s tudent ' s academic performance and adjustment in the class, this study compares teachers' knowledge and attitude to these ailments. Six hundred sel f-admini s tered standardized questionnaires were given to teachers in public schools (primary and secondary) in Ilorin metropolis, the capital of Kwara State. The response rate was 88%. Respondents were 35% males and 65% females with age range of 20 to 67years (mean of 35.±8.9). All the teachers had been educated for 12years, but there health educational knowledge about epilepsy and asthma appear inadequate. However, responses were more in favor of asthma than epilepsy.About 21% and 4% of teachers associated epilepsy and asthma with insanity respectively. Forty-eight percent of participants indicated that epilepsy was contractible through saliva, compared to 13% that held same opinion of asthma

Research paper thumbnail of Psychiatric morbidity among undergraduate students of university of Ilorin, Kwara state, Nigeria

European Psychiatry, 2021

IntroductionThe Nigerian tertiary education system admits mostly teenagers and young adults from ... more IntroductionThe Nigerian tertiary education system admits mostly teenagers and young adults from different ethno-religious and family backgrounds, some of whom may have inherent risks and predisposition to mental illness. They then undergo stressful conditions related to the university life such as long durations of lectures, over-crowding, and lack of social amenities, haphazard lecture schedules as well as incessant industrial strike actions of academic and non- academic staff. In spite of these, there appears to be few studies on the burden of emotional and mental disorders among Nigerian University students, and none was cited suggesting interventions that may be appropriate.ObjectivesThe objectives of the study is to determine the prevalence of psychiatric morbidity and its associated factors among undergraduate students of Univesity of IlorinMethodsThis is a cross-sectional study using multi staged systematic randomization. A self-administered socidemographic questionnaire and...

Research paper thumbnail of Evaluation of the effect of mental health training of primary health care workers on attitudes towards mental illness

European Psychiatry, 2021

IntroductionThe World Health Organization (WHO) set a target of task shifting as a means of achie... more IntroductionThe World Health Organization (WHO) set a target of task shifting as a means of achieving improved mental health services within the community as a means of tackling the unmet needs of mental health care. Primary health care workers (PHCWs) have been identified as essential to achieving this goal.ObjectivesThis study was to identify attitudes and beliefs of PHCWs on mental illness, and to assess the effect of a mental health training on these attitudes and beliefs.MethodsThe attitude towards mental illness (ASMI) scale was administered on 91 PHCWs pre- and post- a 4 day training on mental health to assess change in attitude across 6 domains.ResultsOur findings revealed significant positive change in four domains, namely separatism (p = < 0.001), restrictiveness (p = < 0.001), benevolence (p = p =< 0.001) and stigmatization (p = < 0.001). The changes in stereotyping (p = 0.475) and pessimistic prediction (p = 0.056) domains were not clinically significant.Conc...

Research paper thumbnail of Concordance Between Self-Report Psychoactive Substance Use and Urine Drug Test Among Students of University of Ilorin, Nigeria

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2021

Background: The prevalence of psychoactive substance use is increasing globally and university st... more Background: The prevalence of psychoactive substance use is increasing globally and university students are not left behind. Self-report, using questionnaire has been the common method of assessing substance use amongst the students' population. This is, however, fraught with problems of poor reporting and deliberate falsehood. Urine Drug Test (UDT) is a biochemical method that tests the recent use of substances either as a direct test of the psychoactive substance or its metabolite(s). Methods: Two thousand five hundred and fifty students of the University of Ilorin, Nigeria completed a questionnaire based on the World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines for student substance-use surveys. Substances investigated in the survey were alcohol, cigarettes, cannabis, strong and mild stimulants, hypno-sedatives, cocaine, opiate, organic solvents, and hallucinogens. A subset of the total population, made of three hundred and two of the students were, subsequently, randomly selected to...

Research paper thumbnail of Concordance Between Self-Report Psychoactive Substance Use and Urine Drug Test Among Students of University of Ilorin, Nigeria

Research paper thumbnail of Alcohol-related disorders among medical and surgical in-patients in a Nigerian teaching hospital

Annals of African Medicine, 2013

Alcohol use disorders exist in a high proportion of hospitalized patients and this often complica... more Alcohol use disorders exist in a high proportion of hospitalized patients and this often complicates patient management, but a large proportion of them still go unrecognized by the managing clinicians. The objective was to provide data on the proportion of inpatients 18 years and above with alcohol-related disorders, and ability of the managing clinicians to detect these disorders. Alcohol use disorders were assessed in 339 consecutive patients admitted into medical and surgical wards of University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital (UITH), Ilorin, using the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Disorders (SCID) -- Alcohol module, for a period of 5 months. They were also assessed for the presence or absence of alcohol-related problems (physical, psychological, and social) by direct questioning. In addition, patients&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;#39; case notes were scrutinized for additional information on alcohol-related problems and ability of managing clinicians to detect alcohol-related problems in their patients. All patients with alcohol use disorders were males. The point prevalence for alcohol abuse and alcohol dependence using DSM-IV criteria were 16.4% and 8.5%, respectively among males while another 1.2% who did not meet DSM-IV criteria for abuse and dependence, had alcohol-related problems. Marital disharmony, financial problems, and deteriorating work performance were the most common psychosocial problems among the drinkers. Gastritis occurred in 18.5% of cases with alcohol abuse and 21.4% of cases with alcohol dependence. Other physical problems among drinkers included liver cirrhosis, malnutrition, and various injuries. Significantly more patients aged (45-64 years) and patients of low educational status compared to abstainers had alcohol use disorders and alcohol-related problems. In addition, significantly more patients with alcohol use disorders/alcohol-related problems compared to abstainers were observed to have physical and psychosocial health problems. Alcohol-related problems were detected in only 10.9% of the alcohol users by the managing clinicians. There is a considerable case load of patients with alcohol-related disorders in the hospital. There is therefore the need to improve ability of the managing clinicians to detect and manage cases of alcohol-related disorders, with referrals where appropriate.

Research paper thumbnail of Perception and attitude to epilepsy among teachers in primary, secondary and tertiary educational institutions in middle belt Nigeria

Tropical Doctor, 2005

Compared with the disability associated with repeated seizures or side-effects of antiepileptic m... more Compared with the disability associated with repeated seizures or side-effects of antiepileptic medications, the social stigma associated with epilepsy is often a major handicap to people living with this condition. This study therefore looked at the knowledge, attitude and perception of teachers who see a lot of epileptics, relates on daily bases and have a high influence on students with epilepsy. Self-administered questionnaires were used to obtain information from 460 randomly selected teachers in primary, secondary and tertiary educational institutions in Kwara State-middle belt of Nigeria. The response rate was 75%. Almost all of the teachers had heard about epilepsy, but their awareness does not equate with the acceptance and understanding of epilepsy. About 30.5% believed that it could be contracted through the saliva of an epileptic, 27.7% thought it was synonymous with possession with evil spirit, while 10% misunderstood epilepsy for insanity. Close to one-fifth of the tea...

Research paper thumbnail of Prevalence and clinical implications of psychopathology in adults with epilepsy seen in an outpatient clinic in Nigeria

General Hospital Psychiatry, 2014

The psychopathological and clinical characteristics of adult patients with epilepsy attending our... more The psychopathological and clinical characteristics of adult patients with epilepsy attending our neurology clinic were evaluated to determine prevalence of psychopathology and its associated factors towards improving services and initiating collaborative care which is currently nonexistent. The study was a two-stage procedure conducted over 1 year using the General Health Questionnaire in the first stage and Schedule for Clinical Assessment in Neuropsychiatry in the second stage. Diagnosis of psychiatric disorders was based on International Classification of Diseases: 10th Revision criteria. Sixty-three patients were interviewed. Mean age was 34.43 ± 13.7 years; more than half of the patients had less than one seizure episode per month. Fourteen patients (22.2%) had partial epilepsy; 40 (63.5%), generalized; and 9 (14.3%), unclassified seizures. The rate of psychiatric morbidity was found to be 28.6%. Depressive disorders were the most common (66.7%), followed by psychotic disorders (11.1%), anxiety disorders (11.1%) and dementia (11.1%). Psychopathology was more common in women (P=.007), those older than 40 years (P = .038) and those with partial epilepsy (P = .017). About one third of patients with epilepsy studied had undetected and untreated psychopathology. Our neurology clinic urgently needs currently nonexistent collaborative care involving neurologists, psychiatrists and primary care physicians in order to improve the mental health of the patients with epilepsy.

Research paper thumbnail of Alcohol-related disorders among medical and surgical in-patients in a Nigerian teaching hospital

Alcohol use disorders exist in a high proportion of hospitalized patients and this often complica... more Alcohol use disorders exist in a high proportion of hospitalized patients and this often complicates patient management, but a large proportion of them still go unrecognized by the managing clinicians. The objective was to provide data on the proportion of inpatients 18 years and above with alcohol-related disorders, and ability of the managing clinicians to detect these disorders. Alcohol use disorders were assessed in 339 consecutive patients admitted into medical and surgical wards of University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital (UITH), Ilorin, using the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Disorders (SCID) -- Alcohol module, for a period of 5 months. They were also assessed for the presence or absence of alcohol-related problems (physical, psychological, and social) by direct questioning. In addition, patients&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;#39; case notes were scrutinized for additional information on alcohol-related problems and ability of managing clinicians to detect alcohol-related problems in their patients. All patients with alcohol use disorders were males. The point prevalence for alcohol abuse and alcohol dependence using DSM-IV criteria were 16.4% and 8.5%, respectively among males while another 1.2% who did not meet DSM-IV criteria for abuse and dependence, had alcohol-related problems. Marital disharmony, financial problems, and deteriorating work performance were the most common psychosocial problems among the drinkers. Gastritis occurred in 18.5% of cases with alcohol abuse and 21.4% of cases with alcohol dependence. Other physical problems among drinkers included liver cirrhosis, malnutrition, and various injuries. Significantly more patients aged (45-64 years) and patients of low educational status compared to abstainers had alcohol use disorders and alcohol-related problems. In addition, significantly more patients with alcohol use disorders/alcohol-related problems compared to abstainers were observed to have physical and psychosocial health problems. Alcohol-related problems were detected in only 10.9% of the alcohol users by the managing clinicians. There is a considerable case load of patients with alcohol-related disorders in the hospital. There is therefore the need to improve ability of the managing clinicians to detect and manage cases of alcohol-related disorders, with referrals where appropriate.

Research paper thumbnail of Therapeutic relationships and professional boundaries : ethical issues in clinical psychology

Ife Psychologia, Jul 25, 2013

Research paper thumbnail of INTERNET-BASED PSYCHOLOGICAL INTERVENTIONS TO IMPROVE MENTAL HEALTH: PREFERENCE FOR AND WILLINGNESS TO USE AMONG STUDENTS IN A NIGERIAN UNIVERSITY

Objective: To assess the willingness and preference for Internet-Based Mental Health intervention... more Objective: To assess the willingness and preference for Internet-Based Mental Health interventions among university students using a validated selfadministered questionnaire, the Mental Health Literacy Questionnaire (MHLq) and the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12). Design: A cross-sectional multi-staged randomized study. Setting: The setting was the University of Ilorin, Nigeria Subjects: A total of 3,300 undergraduate students were assessed. Main Outcome Measures: The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software was used for data analysis. Descriptive and inferential statistics, and regression analysis to predict factors associated with willingness and preference was done. Level of significance was set at p-value of 0.05 and confidence interval at 95%. Results: Preference for Internet-Based Mental Health intervention compared to Face-to-Face intervention was 27.7% amongst the 3,179 analyzable questionnaires, while 48.6% respondents were willing to use Internet-Based Mental Intervention. Predictors of willingness to use internet-based support were monogamous family setting (aOR= 1.486), help seeking behaviour (aOR= 2.683) and probable mental illness (aOR= 0.333) while predictors of preference for Internet-Based Intervention over Face-to-Face therapy were younger age (aOR= 1.377), female gender (aOR =1.342), satisfactory relationship with mother and father (aOR = 1.607. 1. 466 respectively), self-help strategies (aOR= 0.713) and good knowledge of mental health (aOR =1.610). Conclusion: Internet-Based Interventions is a viable choice for improving university students' mental health. Further studies may explore acceptability and use of different aspects of internet-based interventions.

Research paper thumbnail of A 2 Year (2019-2020) Analysis of Suicide Reports in the Nigerian Media

Proceedings of Global Public Health Conference, May 20, 2022

Suicide is increasingly becoming a public health concern. Reporting and portrayal of suicide in m... more Suicide is increasingly becoming a public health concern. Reporting and portrayal of suicide in media may largely contribute to this. Gaining an insight into the pattern and possible risk factors may help in the design of effective preventive measures. The aim of the study was to generate a 2-year data of suicide reportage in media in Nigeria. This was a retrospective purposive Content analysis of all media suicide reportage in Nigeria between January 2019-December 2020. Data was entered into an excel spread sheet. Duplication was avoided. The statistical package for social sciences, version 22 was used for analysis. Frequencies and percentages of relevant variables were generated. Chi square and Fisher's exact test was used to assess associations. Significant value was set at p<0.05. One hundred and eighteen suicide deaths were identified. Mean age was 30.65+ 12.66 with highest rate among age 20-39 years (51.7%). Majority were males (73.7%). Commonest method used was pesticide ingestion (56.8%) followed by hanging (27.1%). Identifiable associated factors included financial challenges, academic challenges, and relational problems. Pesticide use was commoner among younger age group (p< 0.001) and female sex (p < 0.024). The common use of organophosphates which is used in pesticides may be due to the fact that it is a common household tool used to control insects and rodents in many low-and middle-income countries. It is easy to access and affordable, these coupled with social media reportage makes it a ready tool especially for those already contemplating suicide. The study highlights the current reality of suicides in Nigeria. It brings to the fore, the need for proper surveillance to drive a contextualized approach to suicide prevention.

Research paper thumbnail of Views of primary and secondary school teachers of childhood epilepsy and asthma

Tropical Journal of Health Sciences, 2010

Epilepsy and asthma are 2 common chronic medical conditions that are seen in school-age children.... more Epilepsy and asthma are 2 common chronic medical conditions that are seen in school-age children. Both are characterized by paroxysmal attacks that require prolonged medication and regular clinic attendance. Since teacher's attitudes and perception of chronic condi t ions affect s s tudent ' s academic performance and adjustment in the class, this study compares teachers' knowledge and attitude to these ailments. Six hundred sel f-admini s tered standardized questionnaires were given to teachers in public schools (primary and secondary) in Ilorin metropolis, the capital of Kwara State. The response rate was 88%. Respondents were 35% males and 65% females with age range of 20 to 67years (mean of 35.±8.9). All the teachers had been educated for 12years, but there health educational knowledge about epilepsy and asthma appear inadequate. However, responses were more in favor of asthma than epilepsy.About 21% and 4% of teachers associated epilepsy and asthma with insanity respectively. Forty-eight percent of participants indicated that epilepsy was contractible through saliva, compared to 13% that held same opinion of asthma

Research paper thumbnail of Psychiatric morbidity among undergraduate students of university of Ilorin, Kwara state, Nigeria

European Psychiatry, 2021

IntroductionThe Nigerian tertiary education system admits mostly teenagers and young adults from ... more IntroductionThe Nigerian tertiary education system admits mostly teenagers and young adults from different ethno-religious and family backgrounds, some of whom may have inherent risks and predisposition to mental illness. They then undergo stressful conditions related to the university life such as long durations of lectures, over-crowding, and lack of social amenities, haphazard lecture schedules as well as incessant industrial strike actions of academic and non- academic staff. In spite of these, there appears to be few studies on the burden of emotional and mental disorders among Nigerian University students, and none was cited suggesting interventions that may be appropriate.ObjectivesThe objectives of the study is to determine the prevalence of psychiatric morbidity and its associated factors among undergraduate students of Univesity of IlorinMethodsThis is a cross-sectional study using multi staged systematic randomization. A self-administered socidemographic questionnaire and...

Research paper thumbnail of Evaluation of the effect of mental health training of primary health care workers on attitudes towards mental illness

European Psychiatry, 2021

IntroductionThe World Health Organization (WHO) set a target of task shifting as a means of achie... more IntroductionThe World Health Organization (WHO) set a target of task shifting as a means of achieving improved mental health services within the community as a means of tackling the unmet needs of mental health care. Primary health care workers (PHCWs) have been identified as essential to achieving this goal.ObjectivesThis study was to identify attitudes and beliefs of PHCWs on mental illness, and to assess the effect of a mental health training on these attitudes and beliefs.MethodsThe attitude towards mental illness (ASMI) scale was administered on 91 PHCWs pre- and post- a 4 day training on mental health to assess change in attitude across 6 domains.ResultsOur findings revealed significant positive change in four domains, namely separatism (p = < 0.001), restrictiveness (p = < 0.001), benevolence (p = p =< 0.001) and stigmatization (p = < 0.001). The changes in stereotyping (p = 0.475) and pessimistic prediction (p = 0.056) domains were not clinically significant.Conc...

Research paper thumbnail of Concordance Between Self-Report Psychoactive Substance Use and Urine Drug Test Among Students of University of Ilorin, Nigeria

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2021

Background: The prevalence of psychoactive substance use is increasing globally and university st... more Background: The prevalence of psychoactive substance use is increasing globally and university students are not left behind. Self-report, using questionnaire has been the common method of assessing substance use amongst the students' population. This is, however, fraught with problems of poor reporting and deliberate falsehood. Urine Drug Test (UDT) is a biochemical method that tests the recent use of substances either as a direct test of the psychoactive substance or its metabolite(s). Methods: Two thousand five hundred and fifty students of the University of Ilorin, Nigeria completed a questionnaire based on the World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines for student substance-use surveys. Substances investigated in the survey were alcohol, cigarettes, cannabis, strong and mild stimulants, hypno-sedatives, cocaine, opiate, organic solvents, and hallucinogens. A subset of the total population, made of three hundred and two of the students were, subsequently, randomly selected to...

Research paper thumbnail of Concordance Between Self-Report Psychoactive Substance Use and Urine Drug Test Among Students of University of Ilorin, Nigeria

Research paper thumbnail of Alcohol-related disorders among medical and surgical in-patients in a Nigerian teaching hospital

Annals of African Medicine, 2013

Alcohol use disorders exist in a high proportion of hospitalized patients and this often complica... more Alcohol use disorders exist in a high proportion of hospitalized patients and this often complicates patient management, but a large proportion of them still go unrecognized by the managing clinicians. The objective was to provide data on the proportion of inpatients 18 years and above with alcohol-related disorders, and ability of the managing clinicians to detect these disorders. Alcohol use disorders were assessed in 339 consecutive patients admitted into medical and surgical wards of University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital (UITH), Ilorin, using the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Disorders (SCID) -- Alcohol module, for a period of 5 months. They were also assessed for the presence or absence of alcohol-related problems (physical, psychological, and social) by direct questioning. In addition, patients&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;#39; case notes were scrutinized for additional information on alcohol-related problems and ability of managing clinicians to detect alcohol-related problems in their patients. All patients with alcohol use disorders were males. The point prevalence for alcohol abuse and alcohol dependence using DSM-IV criteria were 16.4% and 8.5%, respectively among males while another 1.2% who did not meet DSM-IV criteria for abuse and dependence, had alcohol-related problems. Marital disharmony, financial problems, and deteriorating work performance were the most common psychosocial problems among the drinkers. Gastritis occurred in 18.5% of cases with alcohol abuse and 21.4% of cases with alcohol dependence. Other physical problems among drinkers included liver cirrhosis, malnutrition, and various injuries. Significantly more patients aged (45-64 years) and patients of low educational status compared to abstainers had alcohol use disorders and alcohol-related problems. In addition, significantly more patients with alcohol use disorders/alcohol-related problems compared to abstainers were observed to have physical and psychosocial health problems. Alcohol-related problems were detected in only 10.9% of the alcohol users by the managing clinicians. There is a considerable case load of patients with alcohol-related disorders in the hospital. There is therefore the need to improve ability of the managing clinicians to detect and manage cases of alcohol-related disorders, with referrals where appropriate.

Research paper thumbnail of Perception and attitude to epilepsy among teachers in primary, secondary and tertiary educational institutions in middle belt Nigeria

Tropical Doctor, 2005

Compared with the disability associated with repeated seizures or side-effects of antiepileptic m... more Compared with the disability associated with repeated seizures or side-effects of antiepileptic medications, the social stigma associated with epilepsy is often a major handicap to people living with this condition. This study therefore looked at the knowledge, attitude and perception of teachers who see a lot of epileptics, relates on daily bases and have a high influence on students with epilepsy. Self-administered questionnaires were used to obtain information from 460 randomly selected teachers in primary, secondary and tertiary educational institutions in Kwara State-middle belt of Nigeria. The response rate was 75%. Almost all of the teachers had heard about epilepsy, but their awareness does not equate with the acceptance and understanding of epilepsy. About 30.5% believed that it could be contracted through the saliva of an epileptic, 27.7% thought it was synonymous with possession with evil spirit, while 10% misunderstood epilepsy for insanity. Close to one-fifth of the tea...

Research paper thumbnail of Prevalence and clinical implications of psychopathology in adults with epilepsy seen in an outpatient clinic in Nigeria

General Hospital Psychiatry, 2014

The psychopathological and clinical characteristics of adult patients with epilepsy attending our... more The psychopathological and clinical characteristics of adult patients with epilepsy attending our neurology clinic were evaluated to determine prevalence of psychopathology and its associated factors towards improving services and initiating collaborative care which is currently nonexistent. The study was a two-stage procedure conducted over 1 year using the General Health Questionnaire in the first stage and Schedule for Clinical Assessment in Neuropsychiatry in the second stage. Diagnosis of psychiatric disorders was based on International Classification of Diseases: 10th Revision criteria. Sixty-three patients were interviewed. Mean age was 34.43 ± 13.7 years; more than half of the patients had less than one seizure episode per month. Fourteen patients (22.2%) had partial epilepsy; 40 (63.5%), generalized; and 9 (14.3%), unclassified seizures. The rate of psychiatric morbidity was found to be 28.6%. Depressive disorders were the most common (66.7%), followed by psychotic disorders (11.1%), anxiety disorders (11.1%) and dementia (11.1%). Psychopathology was more common in women (P=.007), those older than 40 years (P = .038) and those with partial epilepsy (P = .017). About one third of patients with epilepsy studied had undetected and untreated psychopathology. Our neurology clinic urgently needs currently nonexistent collaborative care involving neurologists, psychiatrists and primary care physicians in order to improve the mental health of the patients with epilepsy.

Research paper thumbnail of Alcohol-related disorders among medical and surgical in-patients in a Nigerian teaching hospital

Alcohol use disorders exist in a high proportion of hospitalized patients and this often complica... more Alcohol use disorders exist in a high proportion of hospitalized patients and this often complicates patient management, but a large proportion of them still go unrecognized by the managing clinicians. The objective was to provide data on the proportion of inpatients 18 years and above with alcohol-related disorders, and ability of the managing clinicians to detect these disorders. Alcohol use disorders were assessed in 339 consecutive patients admitted into medical and surgical wards of University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital (UITH), Ilorin, using the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Disorders (SCID) -- Alcohol module, for a period of 5 months. They were also assessed for the presence or absence of alcohol-related problems (physical, psychological, and social) by direct questioning. In addition, patients&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;#39; case notes were scrutinized for additional information on alcohol-related problems and ability of managing clinicians to detect alcohol-related problems in their patients. All patients with alcohol use disorders were males. The point prevalence for alcohol abuse and alcohol dependence using DSM-IV criteria were 16.4% and 8.5%, respectively among males while another 1.2% who did not meet DSM-IV criteria for abuse and dependence, had alcohol-related problems. Marital disharmony, financial problems, and deteriorating work performance were the most common psychosocial problems among the drinkers. Gastritis occurred in 18.5% of cases with alcohol abuse and 21.4% of cases with alcohol dependence. Other physical problems among drinkers included liver cirrhosis, malnutrition, and various injuries. Significantly more patients aged (45-64 years) and patients of low educational status compared to abstainers had alcohol use disorders and alcohol-related problems. In addition, significantly more patients with alcohol use disorders/alcohol-related problems compared to abstainers were observed to have physical and psychosocial health problems. Alcohol-related problems were detected in only 10.9% of the alcohol users by the managing clinicians. There is a considerable case load of patients with alcohol-related disorders in the hospital. There is therefore the need to improve ability of the managing clinicians to detect and manage cases of alcohol-related disorders, with referrals where appropriate.

Research paper thumbnail of Therapeutic relationships and professional boundaries : ethical issues in clinical psychology

Ife Psychologia, Jul 25, 2013