Vol. 7, Issue 1, Part E (2025)

Background: Learned helplessness is regarded as an integral factor and a major psychopathological mechanism in the etiological process and maintenance of depressive disorders. The correlates of learned helplessness including the dynamics of its relationship with other psychological constructs among patients with depression are yet to be explored especially in developing nations like Nigeria
Aim: To determine the level of learned helplessness and its correlates among outpatients with major depressive disorder at the Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital, Lagos, Nigeria.
Methods: A cross-sectional study design was conducted among 53 randomly selected adult patients with diagnosis of major depressive disorder {confirmed with depression module of Mini International Neuropsychiatric Inventory}, recruited at the general outpatient clinic of Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital, Lagos, Nigeria. The study involved the administration of a socio-demographic and clinical questionnaires, Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, General Self-Efficacy Scale, Revised Life Orientation Test, and Learned Helplessness Scale to the study participants. Data was analysed using descriptive statistics, Mann-Whitney U test and Kruskal-Wallis test, and Spearman correlation tests. Level of significance was set at p<0.05.
Results: The median score of learned helplessness was 48 among patients with major depressive disorder, level of optimism was significantly positively correlated with learned helplessness (r = 0.261, p=0.049). There was no association between sociodemographic variables, clinical variables, self-esteem, self-efficacy, and learned helplessness.
Conclusion: This study contributes to the understanding of learned helplessness among patients with major depressive disorder by revealing its median and identifying optimism as a surprising positive correlate among them. This challenges conventional models and highlights the need for context-sensitive approaches to psychological assessment and intervention in depressive disorders.