With an average of 25 new patients per day, a rare insight has been provided into the variety of patients at the Yaba Psychiatrist Hospital, Lagos.

The Acting Chief Medical Director (CMD), Dr Richard Adebayo on Sunday disclosed that it was a wrong assumption that both in and out-patients of the hospital are dregs of the society, noting that both old and young, rich and poor, are experiencing mental disorder.
Adebayo, while speaking as the guest speaker at Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Victory Chapel, Magodo listed the current patients of the hospital to include a couple of children, particularly a three-year-old, lawyers, pastors and celebrities.
“Many of those in the elite class are mostly out-patients, meaning that they come around for treatment as long as it would take to treat them,” he said.
Adebayo warned that those with hereditary madness should always be careful not to subject themselves to situations that could take them to the breaking point. He noted that delivery-blues psychosis in new mothers is a sign of suppressed mental case, usually triggered by hormonal changes during pregnancy and after birth.
The Consultant Psychiatrist and Clinical Psychologist also explained that over-excitement can also trigger suppressed madness.
He recalled a pathetic story of a lady who was over-excited preparing for her wedding ceremony and she got so involved that “by the day of the wedding she was already behaving funny and they had to rush through the programme. Of course, she had her honeymoon with us and sadly, the man still left her because he could not cope with the reality that there is madness in her family,” Adebayo said.
He dismissed the myth of every man being condemned to five seconds of madness, though warned that the socio-economic and environmental tension could trigger mental disorder.