AIPM: We would like to know you sir.
Prof Gureje: I am an Ijesha man, born in 1952. I had my primary school in Ilesha, secondary school in Akure and Lagos. Attended University of Benin for Medical Education and housemanship in Ife subsequently.
Residency in Abeokuta and in England for fellowship – University of Manchester for 2yrs (honorary research fellowship), came back here (UCH), started academic carrier, had sabbatical and leave of absence at the University of Melbourne but essentially, I have been here.
Other details you want me to fill in?
AIPM: This corresponds with what we know about you.
AIPM: We would like this interview to help residents, not only residents in UCH but residents in Nigeria and Africa and perhaps the world to know more about the subject matter, Psychiatry. Why psychiatry?
Prof: Good question. I was not convinced I wanted to be a doctor. I wanted to be a writer, wanted to be in the literary axis. I eventually did medicine. When I wanted to do psychiatry, it was more deliberate. I was an unusual way for someone to pick a specialty. I constructed a grid, allocated different specialties to different columns, how challenging it was, how academic, professionally fulfilling, my needs, financial prospects, all sorts of things that would come into the mind of a graduate of medicine.
Then I arbitrarily allocated marks. From the grid I zoomed in on 3; Neurosurgery, Neurology and Psychiatry.
But I reckoned that there was no technology support for neurosurgery. Neurology was too dry for me but psychiatry had a little more of the unknown and more challenges.
As I was interested in writing, psychiatry held more appeal. Once I did that people said it was madness as there was the usual stigma associated with mental disorder and if you were going to be a doctor and wanted to specialize, people will expect you to do something that will bring in money. How could you end up in a place that was unlikely to bring you money? Anyhow, that was how I chose psychiatry, it was deliberate.
Prof: Absolutely not. If I had any dream about how I wanted my life to be some 30-40yrs ago, the dream would not be different from what I am doing now. No regrets at all.
AIPM: Why the name behavioral health sciences, is it because of the stigma associated with psychiatry?
Prof: Not really, it is because the discipline of psychiatry could be perceived narrowly and the practice of psychiatry both clinical and academic would not conform to that narrow perception that people ordinarily would have.
Some of the most outstanding contributions to psychiatry come from people who are not psychiatrists but clinical psychologist, cognitive neuropsychologist etc. Astonishing landmarks being made come from neuroscientists who are not even clinicians but work in laboratories.
In recognition of that, some departments – a good department has clinical psychologists, neuroscientists, in other to capture that, that is why behavioral sciences had to be used. It is just to capture the atmosphere of the discipline.
I have also nursed the idea that one day, we would also be able to have the full sphere of services. In fact, in Lambo’s time, we had trained nurses and matron and the name on the door to this office which I now occupy was behavioral services then.
As far back as that time, Lambo called the place behavioral sciences. That is the reason why behavioral science is preferred.
AIPM: In the last couple of years, we have seen more residents taking psychiatry as their first choice, in 1996, there were 130 psychiatrists, the number as almost doubled now. How can the residency training in psychiatry or behavioral sciences be improved in Nigeria and UCH in particular?
Prof: The figure even surprised me, that is the figure of people produced not necessarily practicing in Nigeria.
AIPM: Not people working in Nigeria, people produced in Nigeria.
Prof: Oh yeah! The number of psychiatrists working in Nigeria at the moment is actually about 149 at the
moment. Twice that number is working in England. You are right that the number of residents has increased. A friend of mine always asked me any time we met how many psychiatrists we had in Nigeria. I always answered “about 70” and would say don’t you ever get above 70?