Comparative study of psychiatric morbidity among workers at a paint factory in Nigeria

Inspite of numerous reports on the neurobehavioural effects of paints, there have been no such studies from Nigeria, where there are now many paint factories. The general aim of this study was, to assess the prevalence of specific psychiatric morbidity among workers in a large paint manufacturing factory. Using the Psychiatric Assessment Schedule (PAS), 60 workers (mean age, 38.1) directly involved in paint manufacture, 60 administrative staff (mean age 41.1) in the factory, and 60 postal workers (mean age 37.7) were assessed. Although higher proportions of factory workers (80%), and postal workers (73.3%) had positive PAS scores compared with administrators (36.7%), there were no significant differences in mean PAS scores across the groups. Two subjects each of factory workers (agoraphobia and dysthymia) and postal workers (dysthymia and generalised anxiety) fulfilled DSM-IIIR criteria for specific diagnosis. However, the paint workers had a wider spread of PAS symptoms, were significantly more likely to experience the symptoms constituting neurasthenia, had many more psychological complaints, experienced a wider variety of spontaneously reported symptoms, and constituted the most frequent users of health services. They had no knowledge of the possible mental health effects of exposure to paint. This level of distress is comparable to many reported findings.