Early marriage linked to mental illness

By Esther Onyegbula

EXPERTS have called on Nigerians to shun the culture of

early marriage and child bride as it leads to future

psychiatric issues. The call was made at the ordinary

general meeting and scientific conference of the ARD,

FNPH held recently as Yaba, Lagos The theme of the

event which had an interactive session with members of

invited secondary schools, practitioners and guest

speakers was child marriages, the psychiatric

consequences, and sub-theme of the media and

psychiatry, proper reporting practices for mental illnesses.

Highlighting the dangers of getting married at a very

young age, Dr.Grace Ijarogbe, a specialist child and

adolescent psychiatrist highlighted the psychiatric and

societal problems associated with child bride and child

labor. "It is very disgusting for the child, to leave home at

that age, most children are just getting accustomed to

their family some are still forming their bonds and ties

with their siblings and other family members, and so

when they have to be uprooted from this family and have

to be joined to strange family, it is very disgusting to

them.

A lot of child bride are afraid of their spouse, they are

dominated in their new environment and they forced to

do so many things that they don't do in their family.

Because the main reason why people have decided to go

for the child bride is because they believe they can bend

these children emotionally and psychologically against

their will and they waste no time to bend these children

to their will. This means that her value needs to change,

her views needs to change everything needs to change to

suit the new culture where she is married.

Marriage is difficult enough for an adult who have

acquired enough intelligence, social skills but for a child

who doesn't know anything and all that, most often, it is

done by cohesion, a slavery kind of cohesion." In his

opening speech, Dr. Ken Uwajeh emphasized on the

essence of proper psychiatric practices as a panacea for

a lot of societal ills. He also emphasized on the need for

doctors and other privileged members of the society to

be more emphatic towards the poor and the needy in our

society.

The event was chaired by Dr. Bayo Aderiye, the chairman

of the Lagos state health service commission, and other

members of the high table were the chief host, the acting

medical director of the institution, Dr. RichardAdebayo,

Dr. Oluwaniyi S.O., consultant psychiatrist, HOD forensic

unit just to mention a few.

The guest lecturer, as part of integrating new media

practices into psychiatry practice, Dr. Maymunah Kadiri, a

consultant psychiatrist, former president of the

association and CEO of the pinnacle medical services,

also talked about the increasing use of new media and

technology applications being deployed to ensure prompt

diagnosis and an effective client-centered management.

The highlight of the day was the inauguration of the ARD

foundation, which the doctors pledged to continuously

contribute generously to, with aims of alleviating the

sufferings of their poor and less privileged patients.

Generous funding was also provided by other guests at

the meeting.