Patients receiving treatment at the Lantoro long-stay psychiatric institution, Abeokuta, Nigeria were divided into two groups (short and long-stay) according to their duration of stay. The two were compared for factors that could be responsible for patients staying more than six months. Social problems (criminality), single marital status, and diagnosis of schizophrenia were found to be associated with prolonged hospitalization. Lack of post- discharge residence and lack of contact with close relatives were factors suggestive of social dislocation in long-stay patients. Ways of rehabilitating chronic psychiatric patients are suggested.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Asuni, T.: (1971) Vagrant psychotics in Abeokuta, J. of the National Medical Association, 63(3), 173-180.
2.
Awaritefe, A. and Ebie, J.C.: (1975) Contemporary attitudes to mental illness in Nigeria, African J. of Psychiatry, 1: 37-43.
3.
Binitie, A.O. , (1970) Attitude of educated Nigerians to psychiatric illness, Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 46, 391-398.
4.
Boroffka, A. : (1975) The provision of psychiatric services in developing countries: Nigeria an example, African Journal of Psychiatry, 2: 117-132.
5.
Cooper, A.B. and Early, D.F.: (1961) Evolution in the Mental Hospital: Review of the hospital population, Brit. Med. J. , i, 1600-1603.
6.
Ebringer, L. and Christie-Brown , J.R.W.: (1980) Social deprivation among short-stay psychiatric patients, Brit. J. Psychiatry., 136, 46-52.
7.
Garrat, F.N. , Lowe, C.R. and McKeown, T.: (1958) Investigation of the medical and social needs of patients in mental hospitals, Brit. J. Prev. Soc. Med., 12, 23-41.
8.
Gore, C.P. and Jones, K.: (1961) Survey of a long-stay mental hospital population , Lancet, ii, 544-546.
9.
Lambo, T.A.: (1964) The village of Aro, Lancet, 2: 513-514.
10.
Odejide, A.O. : (1980) Criminal justice and psychiatry: A study of the pattern of criminality in Ibadan Division, Afr. J. Med. & Med. Sci., (In Press).
11.
Odejide, A.O. : (1980) Some clinical aspects of criminology: A study of criminal psychiatric patients at the Lantoro-long-stay psychiatric institution, Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica. (In Press).
12.
Odejide, A.O., Ban, T.A. and Schaffer, J.D.: (1980) Survey of long-stay patients in a State Mental Hospital. (In Press).
13.
Odejide, A.O. and Olatawura, M.O.: (1979) A survey of community attitudes to the concept of treatment of mental illness in Ibadan, Nigeria , Nigeria Med. J.9(3), 343-347.
14.
Ojesina, J.O. : (1979) The problem of begging and destitution in an urban city of Ibadan, Nigeria, J. of Black Studies. (In Press).
