Influence of Sociocultural Factors in the Development of Mental Illness and its Treatment: About a Clinical Case in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso

Abstract

The origin of mental illness can be multifactorial, influencing the therapeutic route and treatment delays. We report in this paper the case of Miss B.D., young woman that, under the influence of multiple stress factors, and various conceptions of the disease, developed a table of severe depression with psychotic symptoms, the waning of hypertensive nephropathy. Despite the evidence brought by modern medicine in the treatment of such disorders (organic and psychiatric), distrust of administered therapeutics was observed with the addition of traditional and magical-religious treatment. This case illustrates the need to develop liaison psychiatry, to conduct information and awareness campaigns on mental illness and its treatment with the population of Burkina Faso.