Some observations and comments on the psychosocial profile of first-ever referrals to the psychiatric hospital,Enugu, Nigeria

The psychosocial characteristics of 126 consecutive first-ever referrals over a 30-day period to a psychiatric hospital in Nigeria are analysed. There was a male to female ratio of 1.7:1. The largest age group was of those aged 20–29 who constituted about 37.3 % of the total sample. The great majority were aged below 50 years. There were more married females (14.3 %) than single ones (11.9 %); while more men (34.1 %) were single than married (19.1 %). The majority (76.2 %) had received varying degrees of formal education in a country where there is a literacy rate of only about 20 %. About 50 % were unemployed at the time of referral while the majority of those employed were either farm workers or small tradesmen and artisans. The largest diagnostic category was schizophrenia, followed by the affective psychoses. Paranoid and catatonic schizophrenias were diagnosed more commonly than the other types of schizophrenia. Neurotic disorders were the third commonest group. An unclassified group consisting of those presenting with states of acute excitement was also delineated. There was a predominance of persons from the rural areas. Generally, violence, disruptive and abnormal behaviour were the main reasons for referral to hospital. The results obtained are compared with the results of studies from various other workers, while some of the problems hindering systematic field studies in psychiatric epidemiology in Africa are mentioned, as well as certain socio-cultural characteristics of the target population (of this study) which might be affecting the course of mental disorder occurring in its members.