Abstract We report findings from a discourse analysis study situated within a discursive psychology framework that examined how undergraduate nutrition science students took up a computer-mediated communication task in which they were asked to write about what they learned after attending a lecture. Students made learning displays by orienting to the lecture as a news receipt and making assessments of this new information in variable ways. Some did this by marking an extreme change of state through surprise tokens and realization patterns, functioning to position the new information as so extreme that anyone would have learned something new. Others displayed more neutral assessments of the information or claimed no change of state at all, functioning to distance themselves from having learned anything. Both strategies are ways of “doing being ordinary,” while completing a delicate task that presented them with a potential dilemma of displaying their learning for an invisible audience of their peers.

Making learning ordinary: ways undergraduates display learning in a CMC task

Raising a child with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) can often be a difficult and stressful process for families and caregivers. Though research on ASDs in Africa is burgeoning, very little is known...

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1363461520953342

To raise a child with autism spectrum disorder: A qualitative, comparative study of parental experiences in the United States and Senegal:

Depression is a complex disorder which requires a degree of subtle knowledge of its various clinical expressions in order to be able to provide treatment at an early stage. In light of changes in families and patients, the authors engaged in a psychiatric study of current symptoms of depression. A retrospective study was carried out at the National Psychiatric Hospital of Thiaroye in Senegal from January 1st to December 31st of 2011. It related to the clinical observation of outpatients who had been diagnosed with depression. We found that insomnia occurred most frequently (73.9%), followed by somatic complaints (34.3%). Hallucinations and cenesthopathies occurred in 14.0% and 12.6% of cases, which was much less frequent than what had been observed previously. Symptoms such as delirious ideas are no longer the most common aspect of depression. Suicidal thoughts were found to be more frequent than in prior studies, although the tendency to act on these thoughts was still less than before. Thus, societal changes have had an impact on the expression of depressive disorders, and mental health experts should take heed of this.

/pdf/current-symptoms-of-depression-at-the-national-psychiatric-26sbw34sw3.pdf

Current Symptoms of Depression at the National Psychiatric Hospital of Thiaroye

Les troubles psychiatriques du post-partum

The adolescent consumes products in a festive, convivial or autotherapeutic way. Addictive behaviours have a clear tendency to increase since one to two decades. Since cognitive, bio-psycho-social and neurodevelopmental immaturity characterizes this age transition, the exposure to the more dangerous products can affect the development of the adolescent and induce both psychological and physical problems. The work of the pediatrician, aims to create with the young person as well as with the parents, a relationship of trust that favours the expression of the patient-substance relationship taking account all of the environmental factors. Addiction therapies for the adolescent must consider all of these parameters and should not only focus on the sole product and its somatic effects.

Adolescence and addictions

La depression du post-partum occupe une place importante parmi les accidents psychiatriques de la puerperalite. Les auteurs rapportent les differents aspects cliniques, therapeutiques et evolutifs de la depression du post-partum dans une serie de onze cas senegalais. Il s’agit d’un travail mene a partir des observations medicales et des registres d’hospitalisation. Les symptomes de depression etaient faits principalement d’irritabilite, de troubles de la concentration, de plaintes somatiques multiples, d’insomnie d’endormissement, de perte des interets habituels. Pour la prise en charge, toutes les patientes ont beneficie d’une psychotherapie de soutien et d’un traitement antidepresseur, associes a un traitement tranquillisant dans six cas. L’evolution etait favorable au bout de 29 a 43 jours d’hospitalisation.

Aspects cliniques et psychopathologiques de la dépression du post-partum : rapport d'une série de onze cas sénégalais

espanolLos autores revisan en este articulo las diferentes etapas del establecimiento de la atencion de salud mental en Senegal. Se hacen cargo de la instalacion de estructuras asistenciales y de los distintos cursos de formacion que se desarrollan en el ambito mental. Tambien manifiestan la necesidad de elevar la importancia de la salud mental entre las necesidades de Senegal EnglishIn this article, the authors review the different stages of the establishment of mental health in Senegal. They take over the installation of care structures and the various training courses that take place in the mental field. This process began with colonization and continued after independence. The article also insists on a plea for more importance to be given to mental health in Senegal.

The History of Mental Health in Senegal: Healthcare and Educational infrastructures.

Background: Despite progressive increasing of drug use or drug addiction
particularly with cannabis in young people, knowledge is limited about their
consequences on mental health in adulthood. In Fatick (Senegal), the mental
health hospital “Dalal Xel” receives many young people who present psychiatric
troubles necessitating a hospitalisation. Frequently, their history reveals use
or abuse of cannabis joined sometimes with other drug. Method: From a study
concerning period going from January 2010 to December 2013, the authors attempt
to define the rate of cannabis users in the study’s population. Next, they seek
to describe their social and familial characteristics, and the modality of
cannabis use. Finally, they attempt to make correlations between use of cannabis
and diagnostic delivered by doctors. Results: 9.13% of patients who are
received during the study’s period report personal cannabis use. The middle
delay between the first use of cannabis and the first apparition of psychiatric
troubles is 4 years and 8 months. The diagnostic of acute delirious episode
(BDA in French) is frequently evocated about a first episode or recidivism.
Evolution respects classic report of 1/3 (good, bad and indeterminate).
Schizophrenia is also evocated in non negligible proportion, particularly in
early and prolonged use of cannabis. Conclusion: Psychopathological disorders are frequent among adolescents
and young adults who are hospitalised in the psychiatric hospital of Fatick.
Use of cannabis in long term seems to provide particularly psychosis.

https://file.scirp.org/pdf/PSYCH_2014033115184793.pdf

Use of Cannabis by Young People and Psychopathological Disorders, in Fatick (Senegal)

Resume Le Senegal a connu depuis plusieurs decennies des catastrophes. Entre autres, le naufrage du bateau le Joola, en 2001, avec tout son cortege de troubles physiques et psychologiques.  Le Senegal a ete touche une fois de plus par un naufrage qui a cause la mort par noyade de 21 femmes et 54 rescapes. Ce naufrage a eu lieu a Bettenty, une localite insulaire enclavee du Senegal, portant entierement sur la population locale. Une prise en charge psychologique des rescapes, familles et intervenants locaux s’imposait. Une mission de prise en charge psychologique a ete depechee. Cette equipe avait pour mission : la prise en charge medico-psychologique des 54 rescapes, le soutien psycho-social aux familles des victimes, et le soutien psychologique du personnel medical local. Elle a mis en place des soins post-immediats par des groupes de parole, des debriefings individuels et des visites a domicile. Cette intervention a Bettenty reste une premiere mission coordonnee avec l’avenement de l’Equipe Mobile d’Intervention et de Soutien (EMIS) Psychosocial, mise en place en 2016 par le Centre des operations d’urgence sanitaire du MSAS pour des actions de prise en charge medico-psychologique des victimes de catastrophe et de leurs proches. En effet, le Senegal, pays en developpement, s’initie progressivement a la mise en place de maniere formelle et structuree de cellules de prise en charge psychologique. A partir des experiences d’intervention medico-psychologique, il sera possible de rectifier leur mise en place et deroulement, pour des actions ulterieures plus efficaces.

Une expérience d’intervention psychologique après le naufrage d’une pirogue à Bettenty au Sénégal

Les incertitudes des limites nosographiques des termes utilises dans l’autisme infantile et les psychoses infantiles precoces ont marquees l’evolution des pratiques d’evaluation et de prise en charge des enfants concernes par ces aspects. Au Senegal, a la formation des professionnels succedent une apparente recrudescence des cas observes. Ce qui interroge de nombreux professionnels et familles sur l’impact des mutations sociales dans l’eclosion des troubles envahissant du developpement. Sans aucune pretention de vouloir trancher le debat, les auteurs tentent une analyse des principaux aspects evolutifs dans le contexte de developpement des enfants ainsi que des divers facteurs susceptibles d’etre relies a ces troubles et influencant la prise en charge. Il apparait que l’amelioration des conditions de diagnostic met en evidence les difficultes de la prise en charge et les limites structurelles et organisationnelles de celle-ci dans notre pays. Des recommandations sont formulees en fin d’article pour une amelioration du cadre global de cette prise en charge.

Aïda Sylla

Papers

Aspects cliniques et psychopathologiques de la dépression du post-partum : rapport d'une série de onze cas sénégalais

The History of Mental Health in Senegal: Healthcare and Educational infrastructures.

Use of Cannabis by Young People and Psychopathological Disorders, in Fatick (Senegal)

Une expérience d’intervention psychologique après le naufrage d’une pirogue à Bettenty au Sénégal

Les troubles envahissants du développement : considérations étiopathogéniques et prise en charge à Dakar