A study of the social and clinical characteristics of depressive illness among Ghanaian women-- (1988-1992)
Turkson, S.N.; Dua, A.N.
West African Journal of Medicine 15(2): 85-90
1996
ISSN/ISBN: 0189-160X PMID: 8855670 Document Number: 461507
The social and clinical characteristics of one hundred and thirty-one women who attended the psychiatric outpatient clinic for the first time at the Department of Psychiatry, University of Ghana Medical School, within five years (1988-1992) were studied. The data suggested that the peak age of depressed women at consultation was between twenty and forty; and that a significant proportion of them were in the married group. Moreover the majority have no or very little education and thus little opportunity for gainful employment hence the majority were self employed. This finding is markedly different from the findings in the Western Countries, where the depressed women were much older, between thirty-five and fifty-four years; single and were gainfully employed. The average number of children per woman were between five and eight and the women had no adequate financial support from their husbands. These social characteristics reflected in the life-style and the kind of social stresses imposed upon these women in coping with life. These stresses showed in the clinical symptoms they represented, which were mainly somatisation disorder and somatic symptoms, with headaches and insomnia being the most prominent. However, psychological symptoms such as morbid thoughts were found to be few at this first consultation. It was highlighted that the social stresses might possibly be the causes of the clinical presentation of the depressed Ghanaian women. It was suggested that the specificity of headaches as a symptom of other psychiatric disorders other than depressive illness, for example schizophrenia and other endogenous psychiatric disorder among Ghanaian women require further research.