A Case of Brain Fag in East Africa

Abstract

Opportunities exist for psychiatrists to spend a short term, from two weeks to four months, in underdeveloped countries under the auspices of the Inter University Council, (IUC, 1978). This is accepted as a desirable part of training and experience, as outlined in the Royal College of Psychiatrists Handbook for Inceptors and Trainees in Psychiatry (1980), and allows first-hand experience of symptom patterns and features peculiar to another culture. The present case showed a number of features characteristic of African psychiatry, including ‘brain fag’ syndrome (the syndrome which owes its name to the patient's explanation of his illness as being due to tiredness of the brain), a bizarre colourful presentation of the condition at the onset, and at one point a concern with witchcraft. Behind the illness lay family problems and significant life events which could be grasped by the outsider.