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Life Events and Depression in a Kenyan Setting

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

A. Vadher  and
D. M. Ndetei
A. Vadher
Affiliation:
358 Wickham Lane, Abbey Wood, London SE2 0NZ
D. M. Ndetei*
Affiliation:
Bexley Hospital, Old Bexley Lane, Bexley, Kent DA5 2BW
*
∗Present address for correspondence: Lecturer in Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, Kenyatta National Hospital, University of Nairobi, PO Box 30588, Nairobi, Kenya.
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Summary

Thirty Kenyan patients of black African origin undergoing treatment for clinical depression in Nairobi, and 40 matched non-psychiatrically disturbed controls in the community were studied for life events using the Brown-Harris model. It was found that the depressed group had significantly more life events (P <0.001 with Yates correction for continuity) in the twelve months preceding the onset of their depression than the controls in the same period. These results are similar to those obtained by several workers in Western settings. Their implication for the practice of psychiatry in an African context is examined, and some myths about psychiatry in Africa re-examined.

Type
Papers
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 139 , Issue 2 , August 1981 , pp. 134 - 137
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1981 

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