Rate Of Depression Among Lagosians Worries Physicians

Lagos State Ministry of Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation and the Ministry of Health, have raised the alarm over the increasing rate of depression patients in the state.

They said many people had lost their lives because of depression, warning that if the trend was not checked more lives would be lost to the disease.

They made the observation at an awareness programme organised by WAPA in collaboration with the Lagos State Ministry of Health and Pfizer Pharmaceuticals in Lagos.

Participants at the event advised depressed people to seek medical remedies, saying the disorder is treatable.

Permanent Secretary, WAPA, Mrs. Risikat Akiyode, said the programme was put together to sensitise the public to the dangers of untreated depression.

Akiyode said there was the need to sensitise the men fully to stop pressures on their spouses, stressing that men constituted the major cause of women’s depression.

 She said, “Today’s programme is an awareness programme to let our people know that there is a medical condition called depression. A lot of people are not aware that there is a medical solution. Depression can be treated.

“WAPA will organise such workshop for men to better appreciate the way to handle their spouses. Our emphasis on women is because when you take care of the women, you take care of the family.”

Consultant psychiatrist at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Dr. Rotimi Coker, decried the alarming rate of death through depression in the state.

Coker said, “In Lagos State, in the last three months, more than three persons have jumped into the lagoon because of depression. Depressed people suffer a lot of trauma ranging from mild to severe psychotic problem.”

Some of the symptoms of depression, according to him, included sad mood, problems of concentration, change in sleeping habit, loss of interest in job, family life and sex as well as preoccupation with thought of death or suicide.