The belief among Nigerians that epilepsy is infectious is widely reported in the relevant professional literature. This belief, however, has not been subjected to scientific investigation and its magnitude has not been assessed, despite the fact that it is one of the most serious obstacles to the care and rehabilitation of epileptics. The study reported here attempted to provide such information interviewing a wide spectrum of the Nigerian population, including medical students. It was found that most Nigerians, including some medical students, share the belief that epilepsy is contagious. They would therefore not eat, drink, or sleep in the same room with an epileptic, or touch him during his fit. The origin of the belief is now lost in obscurity, but traditional healers seem to be its current respository and propagators. The views of the latter are reinforced and sustained by people fleeing in panic from a patient experiencing a grand mal attack. These findings suggest treatment and rehabilitative strategies.

Pioneer investigators in Nigeria have presented a gloomy picture of epilepsy as a highly infectious and disastrous disease in the eyes of the public. As a result, epileptic persons suffer untold social deprivations and discrimination in education, employment, housing, marital life, etc. These assertions have been repeated over the years more as a result of incidental observations while reviewing hospital cases than as products of attitude research on the subject. We assumed, therefore, that these statements should be considered as impressive hypotheses needing to be tested. By employing the Osgood semantic differential and the behavioral differential of Triandis, we assessed the attitude of the normal literate general public toward persons with epilepsy and "cured" psychotic patients and how closely the public would associate or socialize with these people. We also inquired into the public's opinion about the causes of epilepsy and psychosis, since this knowledge is necessary for attitude formation and change. On the whole, the general attitude toward epileptic patients is negative, and toward "cured" psychotic patients, positive. There are sex differences, in that males perceive epileptic patients more favorably than females do. However, both males and females would discriminate against both the epileptic and "cured" psychotic person in terms of employment, residential accommodation, friendship, and marital relations. The major perceived causes of epilepsy reported were heredity, witchcraft, and brain damage, in that order, not infection. About 25% admitted ignorance of the cause of epilepsy, as against 1% for psychosis. The psychoses were reportedly caused mainly by Indian hemp smoking, drug abuse, brain damage, and witchcraft, in that order.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

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Clinical psychology arrived late on the African continent, and is still fighting for recognition. This state of affairs coupled with shortage of personnel has resulted in paucity of research data and poor quality of research work. These facts are documented with a brief historical and literature survey. The author observes that most of the available work is descriptive and anecdotal, based, as it were, on intuition rather than systematic observation. Selected works on schizophrenia, depression, anxiety, children's adjustment problems, behaviour modification and influence are discussed in this light. Neither psychiatric nosology and diagnosis nor treatment methods and procedures have been effectively investigated. Problems of faulty design and misleading interpretation of research results abound. The conclusions which have been drawn from most empirical research data are probably not the most appropriate. It is therefore suggested that any worker wishing to rely on such available information may wish to re-analyze the data and draw fresh conclusions from them. At best most of the available works should be regarded as helping to generate hypotheses for more systematic investigations. The need for training and encouraging more indigenous clinical psychologists to do research is emphasized.