Crippled By Fear: Anxiety Disorders Among Adolescents In Nigeria

Background: More than half of all lifetime psychiatric disorders begin by the early adolescent period, with anxiety and depressive disorders responsible for a significant part of this disease burden. Studies elsewhere have suggested a high prevalence of anxiety disorders among adolescents. Few studies have been done in Nigeria among these population despite 62.5% of the population falling into the 0 – 24 age range. Aim: To determine the prevalence and correlates of anxiety disorders among secondary school students in Abeokuta, Nigeria. Results: The overall twelve-month prevalence of all anxiety disorders was 23%. Social phobia was the most prevalent anxiety disorder diagnosed with a prevalence of 6.6%, followed by specific phobia (6.4%), agoraphobia (4.7%), generalized anxiety disorder (4.2%), panic disorder (1.4%), obsessive-compulsive disorder (1.4%), and post-traumatic stress disorder (0.9%). In the multivariate logistic regression analysis, large sibship (OR = 6.18; p < 0.0001); female gender (OR = 2.42; p = 0.048); not having a best friend (OR = 6.34; p = 0.001), infrequent interaction with friends (OR = 9.32; p = 0.011) and lower family functioning score (OR = 0.67; p = 0.040) emerged as the significant predictors of anxiety disorder. Conclusions: This study showed that adolescent anxiety disorders are as prevalent in our local environment in Nigeria as reported elsewhere in Africa and worldwide, with social phobia being the most prevalent and panic disorder and OCD the least prevalent. In addition, anxiety disorders showed significant associations with female gender, large sibship family, parental psychopathology, perceived family dysfunction, and impaired peer relations.