Depression in people living with HIV/AIDS (acquired immune-deficiency syndrome) (PLWHA) increases risky HIV transmission behaviour, disease progression to AIDS, negatively affects drug adherence and is thus a risk for the development of drug-resistant strains. This study sought to identify predictors of depression in rural Cameroon. A cross-sectional analytic study was carried out from September 2013 to November 2013 in the Mbengwi district hospital of the North West region. We measured depression (PHQ-9 (nine-item Patient Health Questionnaire)), clinical and demographic characteristics of patients on antiretroviral therapy (ART). Means, proportions and a stepwise logistic regression model were fit to describe participants' characteristics and predictors of depression in the study population. Of the 202 recruited patients, 58(28.7%) had a positive depression screen. Independent predictors of depression included monthly income less than 20,000 FCFA (US$40), (adjusted odds ratio (aOR) = 2.47; 95% CI = 1.18-5.18), CD4 count <200 cls/µl (aOR = 7.56; 95% CI = 2.46-23.30) and presence of AIDS symptoms (aOR = 4.29; 95% CI = 2.09-8.81). There was no significant correlation between duration on ART, marital status, age, gender and depression. Early diagnosis and treatment of depressed patients need to be incorporated into intervention programmes, which might improve patient outcomes. More research is needed to investigate the impact of antidepressant therapy in PLWHA on the evolution of treatment.

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Background: Substance use is known to be more common among street children. Sometimes responsible for the runaway and repeated run-away behavior. To be able to reinsert these children, the reasons why there joined the streets, why they use substance and their pattern of substance use need to be understood.Methods: We conducted a descriptive cross-sectional study in February 2021 in the streets of Yaounde. We did a semi-structured interview of 159 street children using a sociodemographic questionnaire made of open questions and, the Alcohol, Smoking, and Substance Involvement Screening Test, version 3.0. The data were analyzed using R 4.1.0 for Windows.Results: All street children were male. The most common reason for joining the streets was, questing for money, reported by one-quarter of the children. Since their arrival in the streets, 60% of them ever used a substance, of which half used a substance because of peer pressure. The most commonly used substance was cannabis (36.48%), followed by Tobacco (35.85%). 14.47% and 11.32% were high risktobacco and cannabis users respectively. Conclusion: Substance use and risky substance use suggestive of substance use disorders are highly common among street children of Yaounde. This needs to be addressed to facilitate their reinsertion as shown in other studies. The mechanisms that lead to the absences of girls in the streets should also be explored to see if they can be applied to boys.

Schizophrenia is one of the most debilitating psychiatric disorders affecting around 1% of people worldwide. Its causes and management are quite poorly controlled. Patients with schizophrenia often experience an alteration in their body image. Its corollaries such as depersonalization are felt like real torture. In the biopsychosocial model of the management of mental health disorders, very few tools are effective in the management of depersonalization syndrome which is often overlooked by psychiatrists who mainly focus on erasing hallucinations and other positive symptoms. Psychomotricity, a poorly known branch of the biopsychosocial model, is still trying to find a place between psychological and body therapies. For a period of 6 months, we conducted a prospective case-study on two patients living with schizophrenia and treated in the Psychiatry Department of Laquintinie Hospital in Douala in Cameroon. In those patients, the association of psychomotor therapies provided a satisfactory response to a problem of depersonalization, also known as fragmentation anxiety.

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