593 – Sociodemographic profile, presentations and therapeutic interventions in a community psychiatry service in south-west, nigeria

Introduction: Community psychiatry serves as a tool to bridge the mental health gap that exists in many developing countries. Poverty in rural areas of such nations may hamper the quality of mental health services delivered to these populations. The study aims to describe the Sociodemographic Profile, Presentations, and Therapeutic Interventions in a Community Psychiatry Service in South-West, Nigeria. Methods: A retrospective study of data collated over a 20-month period in a community psychiatry service of LUTH Primary Care Center in Pakoto, Ifo Local Government, Ogun State, Nigeria. Data were extracted from the register opened at the commencement of the posting over the stated period. The psychiatric assessments were conducted by mental health professionals and diagnosis made based on ICD-10 criteria. Results: A total of 155 patients were seen (N=155). 54.2% were male. Majority (49.6%) was between the age ranges of 16-30 years.68.7% were unmarried and 71% were unemployed. 28.4% had Poor sleep, Hallucination-25.2%, Aggression-23.9%, Autistic behaviour-18.1%, Delusions-15.5% and 15.0% had mood changes. Typical antipsychotics were more prescribed than the Atypicals (89.5: 5.9%). Conclusion: The study brings to light the importance of integrating community psychiatry into the primary care as many of the subjects had low socioeconomic profile and may have difficulty assessing adequate medical intervention. There is a need for government's intervention in areas of employment and subsidy of medication as most of the subjects with psychotic symptoms were placed on conventional antipsychotics due to inability to afford the cost of atypical alternatives.