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.

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.

Prevalence and predictors of sub-optimal medication adherence among patients with severe mental illnesses in a tertiary psychiatric facility in Maiduguri, North-eastern Nigeria.

Introduction: Sub-optimal adherence constitutes a significant impediment to the management of severe mental illnesses (SMIs) as it negatively impacts on the course of the illness and the treatment outcome. In this study, the levels of adherence, prevalence and the predictors of sub-optimal adherence were assessed in a sub-Saharan African setting.

Methods: Three hundred and seventy (370) respondents with diagnoses of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder or severe depression were randomly enrolled and interviewed at the out-patient department of the Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital, Maiduguri in northeastern Nigeria.

Prevalence, Correlates and Under-Diagnosis of Clinical Depression among Adults on Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy in a Tertiary Health Institution in Northeastern Nigeria.

Clinical depression is a highly debilitating illness, which is often under-diagnosed and negatively impacts on the quality of life of its sufferers. When it co-exists with other medical conditions, its effect is even more incapacitating. Undiagnosed depression in the context of HIV infection leads to accelerated decline in CD4+ cell counts with concomitant increase in the viral load and poor adherence to the antiretroviral medications which lead to viral mutation and the evolution of resistant strains.

The impact of comorbid clinical depression on the health-related quality of life of adults on highly active antiretroviral therapy in maiduguri, northeastern Nigeria.

Background: Globally, depression compromises the quality of life (QOL) of people suffering from it. We assessed the impact of comorbid depression on the health-related quality of life (HRQOL) of adults on highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) in northeastern Nigeria in this study.

Materials And Methods: Three hundred and three adults on HAART were recruited for this study from the ART clinic of the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital in northeastern Nigeria.