International Journal of Emergency Mental Health and Human Resilience
Open Access

Screening for Depression Requiring Emergency Intervention among Pulmonary Tuberculosis Patients in a Tertiary Health Care Center in Nigeria

Israel O Aina^1* and Ogie T Ehondor²

¹Consultant Psychiatrist, Department of Mental Health, University of Benin Teaching Hospital, Nigeria

²Consultant Respiratory Physician, Department of Internal Medicine, University of Benin Teaching Hospital, Nigeria

Copyright: © 2020  . This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

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Pulmonary tuberculosis which is a chronic lung disease, by the nature of the disorder, its course, as well as its treatment could be emotionally challenging and can lead to depression. This study sets out to screen patients with pulmonary tuberculosis for depression and to determine if there is an urgent need for intervention. The willing patients with Pulmonary Tuberculosis (PTB) attending the Respiratory clinic of the Consultant Out-Patient Department (COPD) of the University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH) Benin City were studied. The socio-demographic characteristics of the patients was collected and the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) was administered to screen for and diagnose depression. The study showed that a larger group of PTB patients (74.8%) had depressive illness. The relationship between the expressed feeling of unhappiness and the screening diagnosis of depression was found to be statistically significant at p-value < .05. Though the majority of the patients (93.1%) had no need for urgent treatment, there was however a significant need for emergency treatment among the small group who had co-morbidities (X2=21.21 df=1 p<.05). Depressive illness is common among the patients with PTB as well as a need for urgent treatment among those with co-morbidities. Such patients should be given appropriate treatment in collaboration with the mental health team.

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