The only psychiatrist working in the African country of Chad has his work cut out to convince patients their issues are medical, rather than spiritual. The sign outside Dr Egip Bolsane’s surgery in the sleepy riverside district of Chagoua in the Chadian capital N’Djamena proclaims "the pioneer".
Even by Dr Bolsane’s own account psychiatry was an unusual choice: it is not a discipline that many Chadians understand.
"Going to see a psychiatrist in Chad is a difficult thing for many people," said Dr Bolsane, seated behind a sparse wooden desk with just a bunch of white plastic flowers in a gold vase as decoration.
"Public opinion here thinks that it means something is really wrong in your head, it might be because you’re possessed.
"We need to demystify the more or less diabolical image of psychiatry."
A listless fan rotates erratically behind him and he wipes the sweat away from his face – Dr Bolsane himself is not in particularly good health and he can’t afford air conditioning.
Mental health problems are poorly understood by the majority of Chadians who tend to conceptualise illnesses such as depression and schizophrenia as having a spiritual, rather than a medical cause.
Many people believe in the existence of witchcraft and curses, and phrases such as having a "hot head" or persistent headaches are often euphemisms for much more serious problems.