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The purpose of this paper is to assess and compare the knowledge and help-seeking behaviors toward depression among pharmacy students and non-pharmacy students.

The study was a cross-sectional descriptive survey and was carried out among undergraduate students of the oldest and largest university in Eastern Nigeria, the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. Open-ended questions were used to assess the participants’ recognition of depression and their preferred source of help for a vignette character. The open-ended responses were categorized based on the similarity of thematic content and presented as frequencies/percentages.

A total of 118 out of the 200 pharmacy students sampled responded (59 percent) and 270 students out of the 300 non-pharmacy students surveyed responded (90 percent). A significantly higher proportion of pharmacy students correctly labeled the vignette as depression (61.9 percent) compared to non-pharmacy students (39.6 percent) (χ²=16.57, p=<0.001). Psychologists were the most recommended source of help by both groups of students surveyed. A statistically significant greater proportion of pharmacy students recommended psychiatrists compared to non-pharmacy students (χ²=3.79, p=0.044). There was a significant association between academic level of study and ability to correctly label the vignette among pharmacy and non-pharmacy students [(χ²=18.08, p<0.001), (χ²=10.35, p=0.016)], respectively.

This is the first time the depression literacy of pharmacy students has been surveyed in an African country. The findings from this study are interesting in the context of current efforts to decrease the enormous treatment gap for depression by improving its recognition in community pharmacy settings.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the prevalence of depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Maiduguri.

The study was a cross-sectional study that took place among the six IDP camps located in Maiduguri metropolis in Borno State. A non-randomized technique was used to sample 1,200 respondents. Face-to-face interviews with selected members of households were carried out confidentially. The study used the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) and Impact of Event Scale-6 which were translated to Kanuri. Descriptive and inferential statistics were employed using SPSS version 21.

The response rate was 100 percent. In total, 96.1 percent (1,153) of the respondents were depressed, while 78 percent (936) of the respondents were symptomatic for PTSD. The prevalence rate of comorbid PTSD with depression was 68.1 percent (817). About one-third of the respondents had moderately severe depression (29.6 percent, n=355) while about one in ten of them were severely depressed (11.3 percent, n=136). The odds of being depressed was 3.308 higher in people aged 51–60 years compared to people between 18 and 20 years. Significant predictors of depression in the sampled population were screening positive for PTSD and being unemployed.

The high prevalence of depression and PTSD among the sampled population calls for structured interventions to deal with mental health problems. The study findings suggest the need for more research (preferably qualitative) on the mental health issues in this population.

This study contributes to the sparse available literature on the mental health of IDPs in Nigeria.