Abstract
The objective of this work was to investigate the possible correlation between the exposure to selected
toxic metals and the behavioural disorder of mentally ill patients. The study also sought to establish if
gender and age of the patient had an effect on the pattern of the elemental distribution in their head hair
and blood samples. To achieve this, the concentrations of a number of selected toxic metal elements
were determined in 60 mentally ill patients and 43 healthy individuals (control) in Ile-Ife area, in Nigeria,
using inductively coupled plasma spectrophotometer-optical emission spectrometer (ICP-OES). The
behavioural disorder cases investigated were 8 bipolar, 2 post partum psychosis, 43 schizophrenia and
7 non-specific cases. The concentration ranges of Cu, Zn, Ca, Li, V, Be (for both males and females), Cd
and Sr (for females only) as analyzed from the patients’ head hair with behavioural disorders, were
found to be similar with those of the controls. However, the concentration ranges of Al, Ba, Mg, Cr and
Cd, Sr (for males only) were higher in patients than in the controls, while those for K and Fe were found
to be higher in the controls than in the patients for both males and females. Blood samples analysis
showed that, nearly all the elements were higher in the female (patients and control) than in the males;
a possible indication that women may be at greater risk than men. It was also shown that, age may have
an influence on the accumulation of some specific elements. The accuracy of the analytical results was
experimentally demonstrated by NCS DC 73347 certified reference material that was analyzed along the
standards while the significance of the data obtained was tested statistically at both p = 0.01 and 0.05.