From which ever perspective one looks at it, the available figures are alarming. The picture on the increasing rate of suicides in Nigeria is scary just as a survey attributed it to an equally high rate of Nigerian adults becoming chronically depressed.
When the report of the independent survey was first spotlighted last February not many people showed as little as passing interest in the increasing rate of suicide in Nigeria. However, a follow-up report published simultaneously in three national newspapers identified depression as a key factor. It was then that the matter began to attract commensurate interest.
The newspapers published the report on the website of the World Bank’s Mind Behaviour and Development Unit. The report clearly stated that “on the average, 22% of Nigerians are chronically depressed.”
The unit attributed the data to a study carried out in 2016 by the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, in Abuja. The bureau interviewed about 4,500 households as part of its General Household Survey Panel, which it undertakes every two to three years.
The General Household Survey Panel included a measure of depression of the household head. For this, the survey used a version of the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale. The 10-question scale is a screening test for depression and depressive disorder. But unlike the rest of the panel survey, the scale was only administered once.
Respondents were asked how many times in the past seven days they felt that everything they did was a burden and how many times their sleep was restless, for example.
The number of instances was then added up. According to the study, those who scored over 10 were “defined as those with chronic depression”. It noted that people in this category did not receive any follow-up diagnostic screening. The study concluded that the volume of chronically depressed Nigerians has direct link with the increasing cases of suicide in the country.
