Substance use among secondary school students in an urban setting in Nigeria: prevalence and associated factors

Objective: Substance use continues to be major risk behaviour among youth; with consequent physical and /or mental health complications. The current study aimed to establish the prevalence and associated factors of substance use among selected secondary school students in Lagos. Method: This was a cross-sectional and descriptive study among selected secondary school students in Lagos. Permission was obtained from appropriate school authorities; as well as consent from each participant. The WHO Students' Drug Use Questionnaire which had been previously validated in the country was used to obtain the drug use information from the subjects. Analysis of the data was conducted using Epi-info version 5. Results: A total of 402 students were studied - of whom 43.5(n=175) were males and 56.5(n=227) females. The mean age was 15.9 years. 83.1(n=334) lived with their parents; 7.6(n=31) with their relatives and 7.2(n=29) with friends. The commonest substances used by the subjects were caffeine (kolanut and coffee); mild analgesics (paracetamol and aspirin) and the antimalarials; most especially chloroquine with lifetime use prevalence rates of 85.7; 73.8and 65.7respectively. Generally; the prevalence rates for lifetime use of the substances varied from 3.8(n=14) for Heroin and Cocaine to 85.7(n=344) for psychostimulants; and for current use varying from 2(n=8)to 56.5(n= 213). For the so called ""gateway drugs"": alcohol and tobacco; their lifetime use prevalence rates were 9.2(n=34) and 5.2(n=19) while the lifetime use prevalence rate for cannabis was 4.4(n=16). In terms of gender; the prevalence rates for males were generally higher than for their female counterparts except for antibiotics; analgesics; heroin and cocaine. Reasons for using substances included relief from stress; 43.5(n=175); self medication to treat illness; 23.8(n=96); and to stay awake at night to study; 14.9(n=60). Conclusion: Substance use was found to be prevalent among students in this study involving over-the-counter and socially acceptable substances as well as the abuse of illicit substances. It is advocated that there is a need to review existing health educational programmes."

Clinical neuropsychiatric correlates and EEG findings among children with developmental disorders in Lagos, Nigeria

Abstract Objective: Developmental disorders with or without associated neuropsychiatric complications continue to be one of the major health problems in Africa. The grossly inadequate management/ rehabilitative facilities further worsen this. A prospective study aimed at finding the types of developmental disorders and associated neuropsychiatric complications among children aged ≤15 years that presented with developmental disorder in the study centers over 36 month study duration. Methods: The study was carried out in the paediatric and child psychiatric clinics as well as the Electroencephalographic (EEG) unit of two major health facilities in Lagos, Nigeria: Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) and Psychiatric Hospital, Yaba, Lagos. For each subject, socio-demographic data was obtained and appropriate clinical evaluation was carried out to obtain the necessary data and clinical diagnoses. Furthermore, each of the subjects had waking EEG recording using 20-channel computerized Medelec® EEG machine. The EEG interpretation was blinded to the clinical history of the subjects. Results: Overall, one hundred and eleven (111) subjects were evaluated over the 36 month study period. The cohort was made up of 63 (56.8%) males and 48 (43.2%) females. The mean age was 4.8 (±3.9) years, with most subjects falling in the age group of 0-5 years(69.4%). Mixed specific developmental disorders were most common (55%) followed by that of specific developmental disorders of speech and language (34.2%). Forty-one (36.9%) subjects suffered from one or more types of complications, with seizure, 22(19.8%) being the most common. The waking EEG recording was normal in 22 (19.8%) subjects; while abnormal epileptiform activities were found in 85 (76.6%) of recordings. No statistically significant relationship existed between EEG abnormalities and the factors of age and clinical diagnoses (i.e developmental abnormalities). Conclusion: The small number of subjects in this study is a major hindrance to drawing a general conclusion. However, it has been shown that a number of the cohort in addition to their developmental disorders suffered from such complications as seizures, hyperactivity etc. Furthermore, a significant proportion had EEG abnormalities of the epileptiform types possibly reinforcing the previously known fact of prevalent subtle brain damage among African children. The need for preventive health care is therefore emphasized