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Background : Sleep is a physiological process that is important to the physical and psychological wellbeing of humans. Sleep can become disturbed for medical , psychological and environmental reasons. Studies from different parts of the world has shown that informal caregivers of chronically ill persons have high prevalence for sleep disturbances. There is a dearth of such studies among Nigerians.Aim: To determine the prevalence of sleep disturbances among primary informal caregivers to persons with mental illness and to compare it with that obtained among non-caregivers within the same region.Methods: This study was a crosssectional, comparative study conducted among 250 caregivers to persons with mental illness and 216 non-caregivers. All the subjects were randomly selected and had to meet the inclusion criteria. The selfadmini s tered ques t ionnai re contained the General Health Questionnaire-28 and a proforma which was designed to elicit sociodemographic data and the presence of sleep disturbance in the subjects within the last 6-12 months period.Results: The prevalence of sleep disturbance was found to be significantly higher among caregivers (27.7%) when compared with non-caregivers (12.3%). The general health questionnaire (GHQ) which is popularly used for screening for psychological distress was only able to pick out 53.3% of the caregivers with sleep disturbances. Amongst the caregivers, advancing age and belonging to a polygamous family setting were significantly associated with sleep disturbances.Conclusion: Caregivers are at almost thrice the risk of sleep disturbances than the noncaregivers (OR = 2.7, CI= 1.26-1.74). Periodic screening of caregivers should be done with specific sleep instruments especially for those of them who operate dangerous machinery and commercial vehicles.Keywords: Prevalence, Sleep disturbances, primary informal caregiver, persons with mental illness

Toxicology screening has clinical and forensic applications in evaluating severe or life-threatening symptoms in patients presenting with signs and symptoms suggestive of intoxication or overdose. In both acute psychiatric and medical settings, urine toxicology has been found helpful in detection of substances of abuse. The aim of this study was to determine the pattern of substance use as detected by urine toxicology screening amongst patients at a psychiatric facility in Lagos Nigeria. A Total of 1555 subjects made up of males (1480) and females (75) were screened using the one step multi-6 drug test panel immunoassay for qualitative detection of Methadone, Methamphetamine, Benzodiazepine, Cocaine, Morphine and Tetrahydrocannabinol. 927 (59.6%) subjects were positive with one or more drugs passing the concentration cut off. Tetrahydrocannabinol (42.3%) and Benzodiazepine (49%) were found to be predominant in the population studied. This study shows the most common psychoactive substance used in this environment is cannabis and also, the significant agreement between clinical diagnosis and urine toxicology screening.Keywords: Urine screening, Toxicology, Substance use, clinical diagnosis