Descriptive Study of Cases of Schizophrenia in the Malian Population

Abstract Background. Schizophrenia is a relatively common disease worldwide with a point prevalence of around 5/1000 in the population. The aim of this present work was to assess the demographic, clinical, familial, and environmental factors associated with schizophrenia in Mali. Methods. This was a prospective descriptive study on a series of 164 patients aged at least 12 years who came for a follow-up consultation at the psychiatry department of the University Hospital Center (CHU) Point G in Mali between February 2019 and January 2020 for schizophrenia spectrum disorder as defined by DSM-5 diagnostic criteria. Results. Our results revealed that the male sex was predominant (80.5%). The 25–34 age group was more represented with 44.5%. The place of birth of the majority of our patients was the urban area (52.4%). The urban area also represented mainly the place of the first year of life of our patients (56.1%). The unemployed were more numerous with 56.1%. The number of singles represented 61%. Patients with secondary education were more frequent (58.5%). With the exception of education level, there was a statistically significant difference in the distribution of demographic parameters. Familial schizophrenia cases were observed in 51.7% against 49.3% for non-familial cases. The most common clinical manifestation of schizophrenia was the paranoid form (34.1%), followed by the Undifferentiated form (28.7%), and the Hebephrenia form (17.1%). Most of the schizophrenic patients were born during the cold season with 48.8% of cases. Most schizophrenic patients did not use cannabis (68.7%). The majority of schizophrenic patients came from families in which the father (51.2%) and mother (64.2%) did not attend school. Conclusions. The onset of schizophrenia in the Malian population has been associated with socio-demographic, clinical, genetic and environmental characteristics.