BackgroundDepression is a leading cause of disability and has been projected to become the 2nd most burdensome disease by the year 2020; depression has also been found to be the strongest single risk factor for attempted or completed suicides. Adolescent-onset mood disorders are frequently unrecognized or misdiagnosed and often go untreated. While there is a growing literature on the mental health literacy of adults, there has not been a parallel interest in the mental health literacy of young people in Nigeria.MethodsThe study was a cross-sectional descriptive survey conducted among students of a Federal Government College (high school) in south-east Nigeria. All consenting students in the senior secondary classes (grades 10–12) were recruited, making a total of 285 participants. The participants were presented with the ‘friend in need’ questionnaire designed to elicit the participants’ recognition of the disorder depicted in two vignettes and their recommendation about the appropriate source of help-seeking. One vignette was of a clinically depressed case while the other vignette was about a girl undergoing normal life crisis.ResultsOut of the 285 students recruited into the study, 277 questionnaires were adequately completed indicating a response rate of 97.2%. A total of 4.8% (n = 13) participants correctly identified and labelled the depression vignette. Only four respondents (1.5%) recommended professional help from a Psychiatrist or Psychologist. Insomnia was the most identified symptom of distress for depression (17.1%). Females demonstrated higher mental health literacy, in terms of their ability to correctly label the depression vignettes, their expression of greater concern over a depressed peer than males, their expectation that depression requires a longer recovery than normal teenage problems and in their ability to identify individual symptoms of depression. Family and friends were the most recommended source of help.ConclusionMental health literacy was abysmally low amongst the adolescents surveyed. There’s an urgent need to increase mental health awareness in Nigeria.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s13033-018-0186-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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Objective: This study was designed to assess community pharmacists’ compliance to rules and regulations guiding the practice of pharmacy in Anambra state, Nigeria.Methods: The study was carried out using a mixed method. In the first phase, adapted and validated questionnaire was used to obtain demographic data and information on some practice standards. While in the second phase, the researcher interviewed the practicing pharmacists on some of the key practice standards followed by observation of the items included in the interview. Statistical analysis was computed using SPSS and minitab versions 23.0 and 14.0 respectively. Descriptive analysis was carried out on the demographic items and other sections of the questionnaire. Quantitative data were analysed by computing frequency tables. Average percentage score for each section of the questionnaire was calculated. One-way ANOVA [with post hoc test—LSD] and Independent-Samples T Test were used to examine significance relationship between demographic variables and the different dimensions of the questionnaire.Results: The response rate to the study questionnaire was 82%. While the questionnaire study had a mean good compliance level to environmental and dispensing practice standards, the interview and observation phase observed poor compliance to some items in this section. The study further observed good implementation level for pharmaceutical care, except for proper documentation. Although the pharmacists’ knowledge of pharmacovigilance activities was observed to be fair, their involvement in the activity was poor.Conclusion: The Overall findings of the study did not record an excellent compliance level to good professional practice by community pharmacists in Anambra state, Nigeria.

Introduction: Depression is the most prevalent psychiatric comorbidity linked with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. This study aimed to assess the depression literacy, risk perception, and preferred source of help for depression among people living with HIV/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS).Material and methods: It was a cross-sectional descriptive survey. The D-lit questionnaire was used to assess depression literacy. Data analyses were completed with IBM Statistical Product and Services Solution for Windows, version 21.0. Descriptive analyses were performed to characterize the survey sample. Open-ended responses were grouped based on the similarity of thematic content and frequencies/percentages reported. Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney tests were carried out to compare independent variables, with significance set at p < 0.05.Results: A total of 188 out of 351 questionnaires distributed were completed (response rate, 53.71%). About 53.2% of the respondents (n = 100) had depression knowledge scores less than the average score of 10.54 ± 2.032. Males had statistically significant higher depression literacy scores than females. The majority of respondents reported that they would seek help from their primary care physician (47.9%, n = 90), while less than one-fifth of them opted to seek help from a psychologist (18.6%, n = 35). A greater proportion of males recommended seeking help from a psychologist compared to females (25.0%, n =12 vs. 16.4%, n = 23). Conclusions:The people living with HIV/AIDS surveyed had a poor knowledge of depression and the majority felt they were not at risk of getting depressed. A majority of them reported they would seek help from their primary care physician, therefore underscoring the importance of routine depression screening among this population.

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