Way out is improvement in socio-economic conditions
If there is a connection between recession and depression, leading to increased cases of suicide, then there is cause for concern as Nigerians battle biting recession. For instance, it was alarming that the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), during an interactive session in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, expressed concern over the rising cases of suicide among its officers.
Against this background, the insightful picture by a psychiatrist at the Federal Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital, Yaba (FNPHY), Lagos, Dr. Bolanle Ajayi, deserves attention: “The high cases of depressive illnesses are no doubt as a result of the economic recession and a lot of people are being affected. Even in our hospital wards now, we see a lot of people coming down with depressive illness, suicide, and depression, deliberate self-harm and by the time we look at the primary cause of these illnesses, it was actually this recession going on.” Ajayi was quoted as saying that many Nigerians are psychologically, socially and emotionally affected by the recession.
Statistically speaking, the figures indeed suggest that more Nigerians are experiencing mental challenges that may not be unconnected with the country’s unfavourable economic situation. For example, FNPHY recorded 59 per cent increase in the number of new patients in the first 11 months of 2016. Between January and November 2016, patient attendance at the health institution reportedly reached 53, 287 compared with 25,267 for the same period in 2015.
A report said: “More women than men appeared to be seeking help for psychiatric illnesses because during the period in question, the number of female patients increased 135 per cent from 13,730 to 32,261, compared with an increase of 82 per cent from 11,537 to 21,026, for male patients.”
It continued: “The number of new patients in the hospital increased from 2,531 to 4,031. Of the new patients, 2,001 were male representing 53 per cent increase over the 1,306 recorded last year, while 2,030 were female, a 66 per cent increase over the previous year. In absolute figures, there was an overall 46 per cent increase in number of admissions in 2016 (867) compared with 594 in 2015, while the community clinic attendance went up from 1,793 to 3,510, a 95 per cent increase.”
More disturbing is the information that more children were also mentally challenged in the period under focus: “Even children were not spared as there was a 144 per cent increase in the number of child/adolescent clinic attendance from 1,375 to 3,355. This comprised a 141 per cent increase of girls from 2,311 to 5,581, and 138 per cent increase for boys, from 936 to 2,226. Also, the number of follow-up patients increased 74 per cent from 19,889 (9,076 male and 10,813 female) to 34,536 (11,608 male and 22,928 female).”
The increased psychiatric consultations and hospitalisations reportedly resulting from the country’s worsening economic crisis have been attributed to significant stressors, including loss of livelihood, depleted financial income, reduced purchasing power and lack of savings which are putting a strain on individual, familial and group relationships. It is said that the effect of the recession is more pronounced in low-income families, making them increasingly unable to meet their basic needs such as food, security, transportation, healthcare and shelter. This leads to problems of anxiety, lowered self-esteem and other emotional/behavioural difficulties, which may further lead to suicidal thoughts and suicidal action.
Research has shown a nexus between poverty and mental breakdown, which must not be ignored, considering the lamentable enabling conditions created by the country’s recession. Dr. Ajayi was quoted as saying that depressive disorder, an extreme form of sadness, could result in loss of sleep and inability to function properly. She said: “People suffering this form of mental disorder do not have interest in previous pleasurable exercise. Sometimes, they may even want to commit suicide or write suicide notes.”
She added: “Virtually all kinds of pressures lead to one sickness or another. When someone has mental illness, and wants to buy medication and he/she cannot afford it, he gets home and somebody provokes him, things like that affect people in the long run. Take for instance in our hospital now, many of our patients on treatment are no longer coming either due to money for transportation or they are not able to pay for their treatment. Some new patients now find it difficult to pay for their files. All these contribute to the increase in mental cases.”
It is bad enough that the country is going through hard times; it is terrible that more and more people are breaking down with psychiatric illness and going through suicide-provoking situations as a result.
Collapsing social values and weakened social structures may well further complicate the complication, but the reality is that people need pro-life and pro-sanity environments to cope in recession.
