Nigeria has witnessed an usual rise in the number of people tragically ending their lives.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) last week said nearly one billion people worldwide suffer from some form of mental disorder, according to the latest United Nations data.
The data said the staggering figure was even more worrying because it included around one in seven teenagers.
“To make matters worse, in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, rates of common conditions such as depression and anxiety went up by more than 25 per cent,’’ it said.
Newsclickng.com recently held a one-on-one conversation with Dr. Adeyemi Akeem Akinleye who is a senior psychiatrist at Epe General Hospital in Lagos. He sheds more light into the early signs and symptoms of depression, causes and when a patient should seek help.
Excerpts:
What is depression?
Depression is a kind of mental health condition in which that particular person is very sad. This sadness will be unduly, that is even if there is cause for it, it will not be too high for that sadness.
What are the signs and symptoms of depression?
We usually use diagnostic criteria which involves the symptoms and duration. The first thing is sadness. The person will be sad, the person will not have energy to carry out daily activities. The person will experience poor sleep. The last criteria is poor appetite, the person will not be able to eat unless he/she has another type of depression called Agitated depression. In this case, the person may sleep excessively and eat excessively. This type is not so common and very difficult to diagnose, one can miss it.
The aforementioned symptoms must occur not less than two weeks before we can relate it to depression. permission
Other symptoms include; low weight, hopelessness; from hopelessness they can go into pessimism; the person can’t enjoy life. Persistent pessimism can lead to suicide thoughts and this is the worst scenario. A depressed person can go into delusion.
What are the causes of depression?
The major one is life events. Sometimes it can be genetic. If a direct family member once suffered from depression, there is a probability that a direct relation can have it too. It’s not necessarily depression, it may be any form of mental health, one can carry the gene from that. Although that is not enough, there has to be a precipitating factor that prompt it. Stressful environment can cause it too.
How can a depressed person seek help?
Most times, a depressed person don’t usually seek help. Seeking help mostly have to involve a third party. They may know there is problem but they may not know its depression. But by the time suicide thoughts comes in, the person will feel as if he is seeking solution not knowing that its depression. Depression can lead to psychosis. People with depression can also have auditory hallucination (i.e people unseen will just be talking to them but these talks will be negative, how to harm themselves or telling them they are worthless).
The internet and hospitals nowadays makes it easier.
Is depression rampant to a particular gender?
It happens to both gender but it’s a little bit higher in females at younger age and middle age. Men of that category become addicts instead of getting depressed. But when they (men) are growing older, depression can set in due to responsibilities.
How can one avoid depression?
Know yourself very well. Know your strength and weaknesses.
Participating in any health situation that happens to family members because we carry the same gene.
Avoid taking drugs without doctor’s prescription.
Family has a lot to do. If you can’t provide for your family, the children are already in the class of people who are likely to go into depression because as time goes on, they will be competing for everything and there is going to be a kind of differentiation between real self and ideal self.
All types of chronic illness like diabetes, hypertension, seizure disorder and so on, if not properly managed, can lead to depression. Infertility and lack of spouse can also cause depression.
How do one treat depression?
Depression is classified into mild, moderate and severe. Its treatment is also classified into the above categories.
For mild depression the treatment is mostly psychotherapy. The patient may come from home for some sessions. This may involve medications too.
For moderate or any severe case, it needs admission. When placed on admission for mild, the treatment is usually between four to six weeks. For this the treatment involves three stages;
Medication
Psychotherapy
Social therapy
For severe cases the treatment may take months or even longer.
Depression treatment is continuous because after discharge, the person still needs to come for evaluation from time to time.