Abstract

About 14% of the global burden of disease is attributable to mental disorders and are projected to reach 15% by the
year 2020.Relapse has been one of the most important problems in the field of psychiatry for the last decades. The
study adopted a cross-sectional hospital-based survey. It entailed collection of information on the individual. The
study was carried out among 196 respondents at FPRRH. It provided a basis of describing the status of phenomena
at a fixed point in time and did not allow for inference of changes and trends of the same over time. The study
findings revealed that the prevalence of relapse among patients with mental illness attending mental health and
psychiatry department 120(61.3%) readmitted between 1-4 times while a significant number of 56(28.5%) had been
readmitted between 5- 7times and only 20(10.2%) had been readmitted for 8-10 times. Majority of the respondents
76(38.8%) were aged between 18-25 years though there was no significant relationship between age of the
respondents and readmission, sex turned out to be associated with relapses where more females were readmitted
than males. The study findings revealed that more than a half of the respondents 101(51.5%) were married whereas
79(40.3%) had divorced their partners and only 16(13.4%) were unmarried. Majority of the respondents, 96(49.0%)
had been diagnosed with mental illness for 1-2 years. More than three quarters of the respondents 150(76.5%) did
not take the treatment as prescribed following the discharge. A significant number of respondents, 58(38.7%) did not
take their drugs even after discharge because of the high costs of drugs, 22(14.7%) because sometimes they forget
to take, 30(20%) felt better after being discharged and only 40(26.7%) developed side effects Because of the drugs.
The findings revealed that more than a half of the respondents 105(53.6%) they use marijuana as a drug apart from
the prescribed treatment of the health worker, 46(23.4%) chew the cud, 25(12.8%) use alcohol and only 20(10.2%) of
the respondents use cigarette smoking. The Majority of the respondents 120(61.2%) revealed that their patient has
ever heard the history of aggression while 76(38.7%) did not have. Majority of the respondents 146(74.5%) had had
history of suicide and only 50(25.5%) had never committed to suicide themselves. The study concluded that Poor
adherence to drugs was due to patients who feeling better and ignore taking treatment. Drug abuse especially alcohol
was also associated with relapses. Patients freely socialized with other members of their communities following
discharge; however, relapses were also associated with scarcity of mental health services within patients’
communities