Celeste Hicks at the BBC reports:
Read related post by Leo Igwe "Witchcraft And Mental Health In Chad"The only psychiatrist working in the African country of Chad has his work cut out to convince patients their issues are medical, rather than spiritual.
Image courtesy of the BBC
The sign outside Dr Egip Bolsane's surgery in the sleepy riverside district of Chagoua in the Chadian capital N'Djamena proclaims "the pioneer".
Even by Dr Bolsane's own account psychiatry was an unusual choice: it is not a discipline that many Chadians understand. "Going to see a psychiatrist in Chad is a difficult thing for many people," said Dr Bolsane, seated behind a sparse wooden desk with just a bunch of white plastic flowers in a gold vase as decoration.
"Public opinion here thinks that it means something is really wrong in your head, it might be because you're possessed.
"We need to demystify the more or less diabolical image of psychiatry."...[continue reading]
