Delusions in psychiatric consultation in Niamey, Niger

We conducted a prospective cross-sectional study on delusions in psychiatric consultations in Niamey, which brought out their characteristics. These delusions often concerned young, married subjects of both sexes. The thematic content of delusions of persecution conveyed by hallucinatory and interpretative mechanisms was omnipresent. Persecution seems to deeply color the psychology and psychopathology of the Nigerian. In other cases, the concept of persecution borrowed the language of ideas of grandeur. The majority of the delusions had the appearance of an acute delirious breath and the first psychiatric consultation was requested only after 42 days on average. The therapeutic approach of the Nigerian follows an itinerary that leads him first to the traditional healer. Psychiatry often recovers the patient only when the traditional healers have finally given up.