Impact of COVID-19 Lockdown on Depression Severity and the Use of Drugs Among University of Ibadan Students

Authors

  • Abdulhammed Opeyemi Babatunde Department of Medicine and Surgery, Faculty of Clinical Sciences, College of Medicine, University of Ibadan; Healthy Africans Platform, Ibadan, Nigeria
  • Lordstrong Akano Olaniyi Department of Medicine and Surgery, Faculty of Clinical Sciences, College of Medicine, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria
  • AbdulSobur Olatunde Abdulazeez Department of Medicine and Surgery, Faculty of Clinical Sciences, College of Medicine, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria
  • Yeshua Ayokun Adedeji Department of Medicine and Surgery, Faculty of Clinical Sciences, College of Medicine, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria
  • Boluwatife Adefunke Bolatito Department of Medicine and Surgery, Faculty of Clinical Sciences, College of Medicine, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria
  • Christabel Ijeoma Uche-Orji Department of Medicine and Surgery, Faculty of Clinical Sciences, College of Medicine, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria
  • Adeniyi Abraham Adesola Department of Medicine and Surgery, Faculty of Clinical Sciences, College of Medicine, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria
  • Habib Ayomide Shobanke Department of Medicine and Surgery, Faculty of Clinical Sciences, College of Medicine, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria
  • Dimeji AbdulSobur Olawuyi Department of Medicine and Surgery, Faculty of Clinical Sciences, College of Medicine, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria
  • Dolapo Michael Babalola Department of Medicine and Surgery, Faculty of Clinical Sciences, College of Medicine, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5195/ijms.2021.837

Keywords:

depression, COVID-19, Drug abuse, students, mental health

Abstract

Background: Since the declaration of COVID-19 as a pandemic, measures such as nationwide lockdowns have been implemented. The sudden disruption of activities coupled with fear could trigger or aggravate mental illnesses and consequently, increase substance use as a coping mechanism. This study then sought to assess the impact of the lockdown on depression and substance use amongst students in a tertiary institution in Ibadan city, Nigeria.

Methods: A self-administered 26 questions online questionnaire was employed for data collection of socio-demographic characteristics, Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) to assess depression, and a section on the use of psychoactive drugs during lockdown. Data were statistically analyzed using IBM's SPSS and Microsoft Excel.

Results: We gathered 102 responses, 54.9% were males. Most of the respondents had mild depression (41.2%), followed by 36.3% that reported not having an episode of depression, 15.7% moderate, 4.9% moderately severe, and 2% severe depression. Female had more depressive episodes than males (p=0.185). Only 4% reported substance use since the pandemic, all were male. At a 95% confidence interval, there was no significant association between the level of depression and any socio-demographic characteristics of students and between the level of depression and drug use.

Conclusions: According to this study, lockdown and other mitigation strategies implemented during the pandemic were not found to be associated with drug use. A limitation of this study is the cross-sectional design, as a result, a larger multicenter study is needed to ascertain the possible association between lockdown, depressive symptoms, and drug use among students.

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Published

2021-12-16 — Updated on 2022-01-06

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How to Cite

Babatunde, A. O., Olaniyi, L. A. ., Abdulazeez, A. O. ., Adedeji, Y. A. ., Bolatito, B. A. ., Uche-Orji, C. I. ., Adesola, A. A. ., Shobanke, . H. A., Olawuyi, D. A. ., & Babalola, D. M. . (2022). Impact of COVID-19 Lockdown on Depression Severity and the Use of Drugs Among University of Ibadan Students. International Journal of Medical Students, 9(4), 264–268. https://doi.org/10.5195/ijms.2021.837 (Original work published December 16, 2021)

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Vol. 9 No. 4 (2021)

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Original Article

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Copyright (c) 2020 Abdulhammed Opeyemi Babatunde, Dimeji AbdulSobur Olawuyi, Habib Ayomide Shobanke, Adeniyi Abraham Adesola, Christabel Ijeoma Uche-Orji, Boluwatife Adefunke Bolatito, Yeshua Ayokun Adedeji, AbdulSobur Olatunde Abdulazeez, Lordstrong Akano Olaniyi, Dolapo Michael Babalola

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