32nd World Seminar on Neurology and Spine Disorders
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Accepted Abstracts

Understanding Psychosis and Schizophrenia; A Case Study of Three Adults in Nigeria, Kenya and Sierra Leone

Elizabeth Ngozi Okpalaenwe*
Psycho-Spiritual Institute, The Marist International University, Constituent College of the Catholic University of Eastern Africa Nairobi, Kenya.

Citation: Okpalaenwe EN (2022) Understanding Psychosis and Schizophrenia; A Case Study of Three Adults in Nigeria, Kenya and Sierra Leone. SciTech Central Neurology 2022.

Received: August 16, 2022         Accepted: August 18, 2022         Published: August 18, 2022

Abstract

Psychosis is a general term to describe a mental health problem in which a person experiences changes in thinking, perception, mood and behaviour which can severely disrupt their life. Relationships, work and self-care can be difficult to initiate or maintain. The main psychotic diagnoses are schizophrenia, bipolar disorder (manic depressive disorder), psychotic depression, schizoaffective disorder and drug-induced psychosis. Any person showing symptoms of early psychosis may be eventually diagnosed as having any of the illnesses above (Okpalaenwe, 2020). Dialogical self-theory by Hubert Hermans (1990) is applied to explore ‘Voices’ and ‘I’ positioning both in the internal and external dialogue in the mind. Dialogical Self-Theory was created and developed by the Dutch psychologist Hubert Hermans since the 1990s. Hubert Hermans (1996a) emerged from working with valuation theory and the self-confrontation method in theory and practice and from a historical analysis of the psychological and novelistic literature. The concept of the dialogical self, (DST), proposed originally by Hermans, professor of psychology, inseminated a dynamic development in psychology and the social sciences. It was a case study of three adults who had symptoms of mental health issues using qualitative method. Interview guide and observation guide were used as a tool to identify and explore their situations. Qualitative analysis were applied and presented in a narrative form. Secondary data was also collected from the journals and books to affirm and support the findings. It was discovered that the mental health illnesses can affect individuals differently but the symptoms are more or less the same. Different cases may require different skills and approach depending on the diagnosis and the level of the mental health. In all, people should be aware of the risk factors and learn to apply the first aids skills when the professional are not around and before they are sent to the hospital for retreatment.