Abstract:

The purpose of this study was to examine societal contribution in incidence of puerperal psychosis in Federal Psychiatric hospital, Calabar. In order to achieve this purpose, three research questions and three hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. The descriptive survey research design was used for the study. The population of study comprised all female psychiatric patients suffering from puerperal psychosis in Federal Psychiatric Hospital, Calabar. A convenience method of non-probability sampling was used to select sample for the study. This was made possible with in-patients’ record from female wards in the hospital revealing a total of 50 patients. Instruments used for collection of data were questionnaires and face to face interview. The reliability of the instrument was established through internal consistency technique using Cronbach Alpha Analysis. A reliability estimate of 0.867 was obtained for the instrument. Chi-square statistical analysis was used for testing the hypotheses. All the hypotheses formulated were tested at. 05 level of significance. The result of the analysis revealed that acceptability of married women by family does significantly contribute to puerperal psychosis. Again, denial of pregnancy does significantly contribute to puerperal psychosis. Finally, the result revealed that continuous delivery of same sex children does significantly contribute to puerperal psychosis. Based on this findings, it was concluded that society do contribute to incidence of puerperal psychosis in Federal Psychiatric Hospital Calabar, Nigeria. It was therefore recommended that the media, traditional leader and religious organisations should educate the citizens on the importance of family members allowing married couples to live their life without undue intervention. Lastly, Government should enforce legislation to punish any man who for one reason or the other maltreats his wife.

Keywords: puerperium, psychosis, tranquilizer

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