Go for mental evaluation, psychologists tell kidnap victims

Psychologists have urged the released five Abuja sisters and other victims of kidnapping to undergo physical and psychological examinations to ensure they are in a good state of mental health.

Due to the physical, emotional and psychological trauma that victims of kidnapping encounter at the kidnapper’s den, the mental health experts said medical attention given to them should include psychotherapy and counseling.

The advice followed the recent release of the five sisters who were taken hostage earlier this month alongside their father, uncle and their elder sister.

PUNCH Healthwise had reported that the family members were abducted from their home in Abuja and a ransom of N60m was demanded by the kidnappers for their release.

One of the sisters, Najeebah was killed on January 13 by the kidnappers while the required ransom was yet to be paid.

Since the last quarter of 2023 and the beginning of this year, several reported cases of abductions have been reported in several parts of the country.

The psychologists urged the released sisters and other victims to undergo physical and psychological medical examinations to ensure they were in a good state of health.

Speaking with PUNCH Healthwise, a Clinical psychologist at the Department of Psychiatry, Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Idi-Araba, Juliet Ottoh, said that the sisters needed medical attention and support now that they were released.

Ottoh explained, “Being in that territory could affect their physical, emotional and psychological well-being. They must be taken to the hospital so that all these can be treated and that they can return to their life before the incident.

“It is important that they get medical support at this time to ascertain that all is well with them as regards their organs, which is their physical health, and their emotional and psychological health.”

The clinical psychiatrist also stated that the girls would need individual supportive psychotherapy to help them understand the situation and assure them that they can still go ahead with their lives.

She added, “The therapy will be supportive psychotherapy and trauma-focused cognitive behavioural therapy because they have been held hostage for over three weeks and trauma may occur in days or weeks after that experience and encounter so they will focus on trauma-focused CBT.

“These CBT can last for some weeks depending on the severity of the trauma and how quick they are to respond to the treatment.”

The clinical psychologist further noted that victims of traumatic events such as kidnappings, if left untreated, could cause nightmares and flashbacks of the events.

She added, “Some of them could develop insomnia, some could decide to use substances to suppress the experiences so that they don’t talk about it. Some of them could develop anxiety, depression and become sad or come back with full-blown mental conditions.”

 Also, the Head of Clinical Psychology at Intersect Consortium, Dr Alexander Agara, stated that a thorough medical examination was needed to ensure their physical health was fine.

 He added that the ladies would require psychotherapy if the traumatic experiences became severe and translated into post-traumatic disorder.

The clinical psychologist added, “They would require some psychotherapy where some assessments would be done to screen and check if it is significant to say that they have traumatic experiences even though that would be too early to know.

“ However, attending three to four sessions of psychotherapy would help them and go a long way in stabilising their health.

They have had quite a traumatic experience, everything about them has been affected because they have been abused and deprived of sleep and food.

“ So a lot would be going on with them and they tend to develop some other issues such as being suspicious, having flashbacks and unnecessary fears.”

He added that these symptoms could develop later, noting that it was important to undergo mental assessments to ensure that they were fully stabilised.

Agara also noted that cognitive behavioural therapy would be helpful to them.

To overcome the trauma, the psychologist stated that they needed reassurance that the event was in the past and they had overcome it.

“This is necessary to build confidence and trust so that they can go back to society and try to function optimally. They require immediate counselling and psychotherapy so that they can understand the level of their mental state.

“Some people have strong coping skills and some don’t, but the truth is, they need therapy. If they have adequate psychotherapy that would at least help prevent having flashbacks of the traumatic experiences they have had.

“ This would help to stabilise them and prevent it from leading to post-traumatic stress disorder,” Agara said.