Psychotherapy training in postgraduate psychiatry training in Nigeria - Are we doing enough?

Introduction: Nigeria, with an estimated 40 million people living with mental disorders, faces a critical shortage of psychiatrists to address the significant burden. Despite psychotherapy being integral to psychiatric training, it lacks structure, consistency and adequate supervision. This is alarming, particularly given the substantial demand for specialized psychotherapeutic support among those with mental illness. Methodology: A cross-sectional study utilised an online survey targeting early career psychiatrists recruited from the Early Career Psychiatrists section of the Association of Psychiatrists in Nigeria. Results: The questionnaire was distributed to 252 early career psychiatrists across Nigeria, with a 42.9% response rate, of which 50% were male, with 73.2% trainees and 26.8% early career psychiatrists. While 52.8% had received some psychotherapy training, only 2.8% were qualified psychotherapists. Notably, only 27.6% of those with psychotherapy training had over 100 hours of training. Factors such as receiving psychotherapy training during postgraduate training and having supervised psychotherapy training were found significant for having independent psychotherapy training. Conclusions: There is little emphasis on psychotherapy training in the postgraduate training in Nigeria. Those who had full training in psychotherapy were self-sponsored. Structured, supervised and mandatory psychotherapy within psychiatry training curriculum is recommended.

Levels and predictors of knowledge of epilepsy among patients attending the epilepsy clinic of a neuro-psychiatric facility in North-Eastern Nigeria.

Introduction: significant numbers of patients with epilepsy have poor knowledge of their disease. Patients' knowledge of disease is related to their success in coping with the disease and adherence to medication; which is one of the key factors that determined the success of pharmacotherapy in patient with epilepsy. In this study, we evaluate the level of knowledge of epilepsy among patient with Epilepsy in a tertiary mental health care facility. Methods: using a cross-sectional design, 410 patients with epilepsy attending general outpatient clinic of Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital, Maiduguri in Northeastern Nigeria were sampled randomly into the study after fulfilling the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Socio-demographic, clinical and epilepsy knowledge questionnaires were used for data collection. Data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 18. Results: 263 (64.1%) had poor knowledge of epilepsy and 290 (70%) had less frequent seizures (having fewer than four seizure episodes in the last three months). Independent predictors of knowledge of Epilepsy were intermediate skilled employment (O.R = 2.32, P = 0.022, 95% C I = 1.13 - 4.76); semi-skilled employment (O. R = 1/85, p = 0.001, 95% C I = 1.10 - 3.12); seizure frequency (O R = 1.72, p = 0.031, 95% C I = 1.31 - 3.24). Conclusion: the level of knowledge of epilepsy among people with epilepsy was low with more than 64.1% percent of the participants had poor knowledge of epilepsy. Occupational status and seizure frequencies were independent predictors of knowledge of epilepsy. We therefore recommend psycho-educational programs be incorporated in the routine clinical care of the patients and for clinicians to pay more attention to providing information and education needs of patients.

Convergent Validity of Self-Administered Addiction Severity Index in a Sample of Nigerian Patients in a Residential Treatment Facility.

BACKGROUND: Substance use disorders present with multiple drug-related problems that need to be evaluated with a view to planning and administering holistic interventions that could potentially improve addiction treatment outcomes. Many valid instruments are available for assessing the problems that occur in addiction but most of them require some training and they take a lot of time to administer. This study validates a shorter self-administered version of the Addiction severity Index (ASI) against the Clinician-administered ASI with a view to cutting the time needed to administer the instrument. METHODS: The study recruited 142 patients in a residential treatment center. Correlation coefficient and t-test were used to assess for the convergence of the two version. RESULTS: The correlation coefficients ranged from 0.52 to 0.97 for the different domain of the ASI with higher endorsement of problems in the self-administered than clinician administered version in most domains. CONCLUSION: The self-administered ASI is a valid alternative to the clinician-administered ASI and it saves valuable time especially in resource-constrained settings.