Psychiatry in Ethiopia

Abstract

Ethiopia, the third most populous country in Africa, having about 27 million people, has a mental health system involving two psychiatric hospitals and six psychiatrists. The author worked as a psychiatrist for six months in the Addis Ababa psychiatric hospital and obtained statistics relating to the patients consulting the outpatient department. Age, sex, occupation, religion, place of origin, alcohol and chat (a local stimulant) usage, diagnosis and previous treatment data were recorded for all the 281 patients evaluated during one 5 1/2 day week. These data are described and analysed, and examples and comments are given additionally on the frequency of some neurological syndromes and the rarity of depression. This latter finding is then discussed in the light of several of the conspicuous oral trends in the upbringing of children and also in the adult life of Ethiopian society.