BIPOLAR DISORDER IN ENUGU, SOUTH EAST NIGERIA: Demographic and diagnostic characteristics of patients

Background and objectives: Bipolar disorder is a severe mental disorder that has been widely studied in developed countries. Very few studies of this disorder exist in developing countries. The objective of this study was to describe the demographic and diagnostic characteristics of bipolar patients in Enugu, South East Nigeria. Subjects and method: The design of the study was cross-sectional. The study was carried out in Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital Enugu (FNPHE) and in a Private Psychiatrist’s Office (PPO) in Enugu, South East Nigeria. 94 patients were recruited to take part in the study. 49 patients were included from the FNPHE and 45 patients from the PPO. The two groups of patients differed only in terms of mood at study entry. Patients were included in the study if they had been diagnosed bipolar, if they were attending the FNPHE as outpatients, inpatients or were receiving emergency treatment or if they were attending the PPO for follow-up and if they had given their consent to participate in the study. The patients responded to a structured questionnaire used to elicit demographic and diagnostic characteristics. This questionnaire was administered by one of the authors (EJ). Each patient was also interviewed with the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI) for Bipolar Disorder Studies version 5.0.0. This MINI assessment was done by (MO). All the data were collected in a specially prepared data collection form. The demographic factors reported on included gender, age, marital status, level of education and employment status. The reported diagnostic and illness characteristics included age at onset of illness, mood at study entry and mood at onset of illness. The data were analyzed using SPSS version 11.5. Frequencies were run on demographic characteristics while means and standard deviations were calculated for continuous variables. The study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of the FNPHE. Results: The majority of the sample (68.1%) met the criteria for bipolar I disorder. The mean age of patients was 33.17 (SD = 11.87) years and mean duration of bipolar illness was 9.6 (SD = 8.9) years. Among the 94 patients, 58.8% were males. The mean age at onset of illness for the whole group was 22.9 (SD = 8.3) years. Conclusion: The current report is probably the first on bipolar disorder in this part of Africa. It will serve as an impetus to conduct more research on the topic especially since some important findings are similar to what had been recorded from both developed and developing countrie

Public and Voucher School Graduation Outcomes between 2011-2015 in a Southwestern State

AbstractIn 1995, Texas created its first charter schools, which consisted of open enrollment schools of choice, as part of education initiative/reform. However, low graduation rates among public schools in the state persisted. The purpose of this study was to explore factors that might contribute to students who received vouchers to attend private or high-performing public schools not graduating at a higher rate than traditional public schools’ students. I used the rational choice theory (RCT) as the theoretical framework to examine whether students awarded vouchers for attending private schools graduated higher than students attending traditional public schools. The study covered 2010 – 2015 and was conducted in a Southwestern state. I collected data from a dataset of student records of choice schools and public schools’ students maintained by the state education agency. I gathered a sample of 500 students who graduated from public and voucher schools from each school format were for analysis. I examined variables that included parental socioeconomic status and the availability of transportation. I used a chi-square statistical test to calculate the difference of means of two populations in carrying out this statistical comparison of the graduation rate of voucher students and non-voucher students. Findings included results that showed that students in conventional public schools graduated at a rate comparable to charter/voucher schools. Positive social change implications from this study would consist of expanding the voucher scheme to benefit a larger population of students that would ordinarily not qualify

Psychiatric Morbidity among Subjects with Leprosy and Albinism in South East Nigeria: A Comparative Study

Background: Skin, which is the largest organ in the body, carries immense psychological significance. Disfiguring skin disorders may impact negatively on the mental health of individuals. Aim: This study compared the psychiatric morbidity of subjects with leprosy and albinism.Subjects and Methods: One hundred subjects with leprosy and 100 with albinism were interviewed. Sociodemographic questionnaire and General Health Questionnaire (GHQ.28) assessed the sociodemographic  characteristics and psychiatric morbidity, respectively. GHQ positive cases and 10% of noncases for each group were interviewed with Mini  International Neuropsychiatric Inventory for specific ICD.10 diagnoses.Results: Fifty.five percent (55/100) subjects with leprosy were GHQ positive cases while 41% (41/100) with albinism were GHQ positive cases. The risk of developing psychiatric morbidity was significantly higher in subjects with leprosy than in subjects with albinism (OR = 1.76, CI = 1.00 . 3.08, P = 0.04). The prevalence of specific psychiatric disorders among subjects with leprosy were depression 49% (49/100), generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) 18% (18/100), alcohol/drug abuse 16% (16/100), whereas in albinism depression was 51% (51/100), GAD 27% (27/100), and alcohol/drug abuse 7% (7/100). Male, married and uneducated subjects with leprosy had  significantly higher psychiatric morbidity than the male, married and  uneducated subjects with albinism, respectively. Conclusion: Psychiatric morbidity was higher in subjects with leprosy than in subjects with albinism. Male, married and uneducated subjects with leprosy significantly had higher morbidity than male, married and uneducated subjects with albinism respectively.Keywords: Albinism, Leprosy, Psychiatric morbidit

Co-morbid anxiety disorders in patients with schizophrenia in a tertiary institution in South East Nigeria: prevalence and correlates.

Background: Anxiety disorders occur commonly in schizophrenia but are often overlooked by psychiatrists. Their presence may compound the challenges faced by these patients and may contribute to poor outcome.Objectives: The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of anxiety disorders among the participants with schizophrenia, and the association between this co-morbidity and disability.Method: A total of 367 participants were recruited from the out-patient department of Federal neuropsychiatric hospital Enugu, Nigeria. Socio-demographic questionnaire, schedules for clinical assessment in neuropsychiatry, positive and negative syndrome scale and the 12-item version of the World Health Organization disability assessment schedule were administered.Results: A total of 189 females (51.5%) and 178 (48.5%) males were studied. A lifetime prevalence of 12.3% was reported for anxiety disorder. Anxiety disorder was more likely in females (κ²=4.93, p<0.03). Specific prevalence for anxiety disorder in schizophrenia was generalized anxiety disorder 6.3%, obsessive compulsive disorder 3.3%, and phobic anxiety disorder 2.7%. Anxiety disorder was associated with increased disability (t=3.50, p<0.001) and psychopathology (t=3.40, p<0.001) among the participants studied. Phobias were associated with prescription of low doses of antipsychotics (κ²=4.08, p<0.04). There was a low rate of identification of anxiety disorder in routine clinical practice (k=0.08, p<0.001).Conclusion: Co-morbid anxiety disorders are common in schizophrenia and they are associated with increased disability and psychopathology. The results emphasize the need to screen for anxiety disorders in patients with schizophrenia.Key words: schizophrenia, anxiety disorder, co-morbidity

A study of training programmes for school mathematics teachers in Nigeria

This research set out to examine initial teacher training programmes for school\ud mathematics in institutions in Nigeria with the aim of establishing their characteristics,\ud quality and appropriateness. The focus of the study was the curricula of colleges of\ud education and the understandings and expectations of student teachers at the terminal\ud point of their training in these colleges.\ud The study sought to determine:\ud a) the characteristic features of programmes that exist in Nigeria for the initial training of\ud school mathematics teachers;\ud b) the differences among the training programmes;\ud c) the relationship between the training curricula and the school mathematics\ud curriculum in Nigeria;\ud d) the level of understanding of school mathematics subject matter among trainees who\ud have completed the training programmes.\ud Data were collected and analysed from three sources to allow triangulation of findings.\ud The first sought information from curricular provisions in initial training programmes, in\ud terms of the knowledge components expected to be understood by a mathematics\ud teacher. The second, a school mathematics contents test, was used to identify\ud prospective teachers' level of understanding of school mathematics at the end of their\ud training. The third, a questionnaire, was used to seek mathematics teacher trainers'\ud views about the training programmes in their institutions.\ud The research drew the following conclusions:\ud 1) There are differences between mathematics teachers training programmes in\ud Nigeria. The initial teacher qualifications awarded by different colleges of education\ud cannot, therefore, be said to be of the same quality.\ud 2) Mathematics teachers training programmes in Nigeria are not achieving their\ud intended objectives because there are contradictions between their stated aims and\ud the curricular provisions for training.\ud 3) The level of understanding of subject matter by prospective teachers in Nigeria is\ud low. Over 30% of student teachers cannot be relied upon to teach the school\ud mathematics syllabus with confidence.\ud 4) There is low understanding among teacher trainers of the objectives and philosophy\ud of teacher education in Nigeria. Most teacher trainers believe that the main purpose\ud of training is to help student teachers develop enthusiasm and intellectual ability for\ud further mathematics.\ud In summary, it is suggested that the curricula for training school mathematics teachers\ud at colleges of education in Nigeria are not related to the subject matter of school\ud mathematics nor to the needs of trainees and they need substantial revision

Effects of Cataranthus roseus on Electrolyte Derangement Induced by Chlorpropamide (Diabinese)R on Normoglycemic Albino Wistar Rat

This study was designed to evaluate the efficacy (or otherwise) of Cataranthus roseus extract in ameliorating electrolyte imbalance following treatment with anti-diabetic drug chlorpropamide (Diabinese)R. A total of 32 rats of mixed sexes were randomly assigned into 4 treatment groups of 8 rats each. Group A (control) received placebo (0.14ml of 30% ethanol)/ kg body weight of rat. Group B received Diabinese in a dose of 1.6mg/kg body weight of rat while group C received 400mg /kg body weight of Cataranthus roseus (C. roseus) extract. Group D received Diabinese in a dose of 1.6mg/kg body weight plus 400mg/kg body weight C. roseus extract. The above dosages were administered twice daily via orogastric intubation in a 12 hour cycle. The administration was terminated at the end of 14 days, animal sacrificed, serum collected and electrolyte (Na+, K+ and CL-) profile assayed. The result obtained showed no-significant (P>0.05) decrease in serum concentration of chloride ion in Group B-D relative to control. There is however, a significant (

Pulmonary morphometric histopathology of saline or paraquat-exposed rats treated with the collagen inhibitor dehydroproline

Call number: LD2668 .T4 1984 O59Master of Scienc

Brain-machine interface coupled cognitive sensory fusion with a Kohonen and reservoir computing scheme

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been a source of great intrigue and has spawned many questions regarding the human condition and the core of what it means to be a sentient entity. The field has bifurcated into so-called “weak” and “strong” artificial intelligence. In weak artificial intelligence reside the forms of automation and data mining that we interact with on a daily basis. Strong artificial intelligence can be best defined as a “synthetic” being with cognitive abilities and the capacity for presence of mind that we would normally associate with humankind. We feel that this distinction is misguided. First, we begin with the statement that intelligence lies on a spectrum, even in artificial systems. The fact that our systems currently can be considered weak artificial intelligence does not preclude our ability to develop an understanding that can lead us to more complex behavior. In this research, we utilized neural feedback via electroencephalogram (EEG) data to develop an emotional landscape for linguistic interaction via the android's sensory fields which we consider to be part and parcel of embodied cognition. We have also given the iCub child android the instinct to babble the words it has learned. This is a skill that we leveraged for low-level linguistic acquisition in the latter part of this research, the slightly stronger artificial intelligence goal. This research is motivated by two main questions regarding intelligence: Is intelligence an emergent phenomenon? And, if so, can multi-modal sensory information and a term coined called “co-intelligence” which is a shared sensory experience via coupling EEG input, assist in the development of representations in the mind that we colloquially refer to as language? Given that it is not reasonable to program all of the activities needed to foster intelligence in artificial systems, our hope is that these types of forays will set the stage for further development of stronger artificial intelligence constructs. We have incorporated self-organizing processes - i.e. Kohonen maps, hidden Markov models for the speech, language development and emotional information via neural data - to help lay the substrate for emergence. Next, homage is given to the central and unique role played in intellectual study by language. We have also developed rudimentary associative memory for the iCub that is derived from the aforementioned sensory input that was collected. We formalized this process only as needed, but that is based on the assumption that mind, brain and language can be represented using the mathematics and logic of the day without contradiction. We have some reservations regarding this statement, but unfortunately a proof is a task beyond the scope of this Ph.D. Finally, this data from the coupling of the EEG and the other sensory modes of embodied cognition is used to interact with a reservoir computing recurrent neural network in an attempt to produce simple language interaction, e.g. babbling, from the child android

Clinical implication of smoking among patients with schizophrenia at a Tertiary Institution in South East Nigeria

Background: The chronic and debilitating nature of schizophrenia creates a disease with marked clinical and economic consequences. Smoking in schizophrenia appears to be associated with increased psychopathology and disability.Objective: The aim of this study was to determine if cigarette smoking in schizophrenia is associated with increased disability and psychopathology.Materials and methods: This was a cross-sectional descriptive study in which 367 out-patients with International Classification of Diseases (ICD) 10 diagnosis of schizophrenia were recruited. Socio-demographic questionnaire, Present State Examination (PSE) 10, Positive And Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) and World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule (WHODAS) were administered. Data was analyzed using a software package SPSS version 15.Results: There was no significant difference in the mean PANSS scores of smokers and non-smokers. Current smoking was associated with increased disability (F=5.39, p=0.02). Total PANSS score significantly predicted disability F(3,71=5.60, p=0.002, R2=0.19). There was no significant association between positive or negative symptoms and being a smoker or non-smoker.Conclusion: The results of this study revealed that smoking in Nigerian schizophrenia patients is associated with significant disability. Measures should be put in place to discourage cigarette smoking among Nigerian patients with schizophrenia.Keywords: Schizophrenia, smoking, psychopathology, disability, Nigeria