Psychiatric Morbidity and Subjective Burden Among Carers of Outpatients of a Psychogeriatric Clinic in Southwestern Nigeria.

Few studies in Nigeria have investigated the burden of caring for elderly persons with mental illness. The aim of this study was to examine psychiatric morbidity and burden of care among caregivers of outpatients of a psychogeriatric clinic. Burden of care was evaluated with Zarit Burden Interview. A questionnaire was also used to elicit caregivers' sociodemographic and caregiving variables while psychological well-being was assessed with the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ). Overall, 52.3% had high care burden. High care burden was associated with financial difficulty (χ(2) = 9.37; df = 1; p = 0.002; OR = 3.1; 95% CI = 1.50-6.4), restrictions on caregivers' social activity (χ(2) = 4.87; df = 1; p = 0.027; OR = 2.4; 95% CI = 1.09-5.27), lack of support from relatives (χ(2) = 6.85; df = 1; p = 0.009; OR = 6.3; 95% CI = 1.35-29.6), physical health problems (χ(2) = 10.52; df = 1; p = 0.001; OR = 4.7; 95% CI = 1.75-12.7), and psychiatric morbidity (χ(2) = 4.05; df = 1; p = 0.044; OR = 2.62; 95% CI = 1.00-6.85). Psychiatric morbidity was predicted by physical health problems (OR = 3.0; 95% CI = 1.1-8.1), financial difficulty (OR = 17.2; 95% CI = 3.8-77.5), and job loss (OR = 5.3; 95% CI = 2.0-13.8). Care burden is a significant problem among caregivers of elderly persons with mental illness attending the clinic. This may have important implications for the mental well-being of the patients.

Self-stigma, quality of life and schizophrenia: An outpatient clinic survey in Nigeria.

BACKGROUND: Stigma is a major obstacle to the treatment and recovery of people with mental illness. In Nigeria, there is a dearth of information on internalization of stigma and its effect on treatment outcome measures such as quality of life. AIM AND OBJECTIVES: The aim of the study was to assess self-stigma among patients with schizophrenia attending a psychiatric hospital outpatient clinic, and the relationship of self-stigma to the socio-demographic, clinical characteristics and quality of life of the patients. METHOD: Two hundred and fifty-six consecutive outpatient attendees of the Neuropsychiatric Hospital, Aro, Abeokuta in Nigeria with a Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fourth edition (DSM-IV) diagnosis of schizophrenia were recruited for the study. The diagnosis of schizophrenia was established with the Structured Clinical Interview Schedule for DSM-IV Axis I disorder (SCID), while item 17 of the Present State Examination was used to ascertain the presence of insight into the illness. The subjects were interviewed with a socio-demographic questionnaire, the Internalized Stigma of Mental Illness (ISMI) scale, the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS) and the World Health Organization's Quality of Life (WHOQOL-Bref) questionnaire. RESULTS: The mean age of the subjects was 39.5 (SD = 10.6) years with males constituting 52.0% of the sample. High self-stigma was found in 18.8% of the subjects. The socio-demographic and clinical correlates of high self-stigma found using univariate analysis were low educational level (χ(2) = 22.69, p < .001), unemployment (χ(2) = 15.9, p < .001), low income (χ(2) = 25.03, p < .001), source of income (χ(2) = 12.52, p = .007) and severity of psychopathology (t = 8.245, p < .001). High self-stigma was associated with poor quality of life in all the domains of WHOQOL-Bref. CONCLUSION: This study revealed that self-stigma was common among subjects with schizophrenia. It is associated with poor treatment outcome, highlighting the need to incorporate stigma intervention strategies into mental health care delivery.

Psychosocial correlates of hazardous alcohol use among undergraduates in southwestern Nigeria.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between alcohol use and psychological well-being among undergraduates of a Nigerian tertiary institution. The objectives included determining the prevalence and pattern of problematic alcohol use and ascertaining the association between alcohol use and some sociodemographic variables. METHOD: The Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) was used to evaluate for alcohol-related problems in 443 students of a university in southwestern Nigeria. A questionnaire was also used to obtain data on sociodemographic variables while psychological well-being was assessed with the General Health Questionnaire-28. RESULTS: The prevalence of alcohol use was 40.6% while alcohol-related problems were found in 14.9% of the students using the AUDIT questionnaire with a cutoff score of 5. Heavy episodic alcohol use was reported by 31.1% while alcohol-related injury had occurred in 8.9% of the students. Male gender (χ2=4.54; P<.05), older age (χ2=3.92; P<.05) and higher paternal education (χ2=4.40; P<.05) were associated with problem drinking. In addition, psychological distress was significantly associated with heavy episodic drinking (χ2=9.58; P<.05) and history of alcohol-related injury (χ2=3.96; P<.05). CONCLUSION: The significant relationship between hazardous drinking and mental ill health among undergraduates in the institution suggests the need for integrating mental health services in screening, brief intervention and referral to treatment services in Nigerian university settings.

The 3rd Schizophrenia International Research Society Conference, 14-18 April 2012, Florence, Italy: summaries of oral sessions.

The 3rd Schizophrenia International Research Society Conference was held in Florence, Italy, April 14-18, 2012 and this year had as its emphasis, "The Globalization of Research". Student travel awardees served as rapporteurs for each oral session and focused their summaries on the most significant findings that emerged and the discussions that followed. The following report is a composite of these summaries. We hope that it will provide an overview for those who were present, but could not participate in all sessions, and those who did not have the opportunity to attend, but who would be interested in an update on current investigations ongoing in the field of schizophrenia research.