Comparison of Psychopathology in the Mothers of Autistic and Mentally Retarded Children

Abstract

The aim of this study was to evaluate anxiety, depression, alexithymia, and general psychological symptoms in the mothers of autistic children in comparison with those in the mothers of mentally retarded children. Forty mothers of autistic children and 38 mothers of mentally retarded children were included in the study. After a clinical interview, psychometric tests were performed for depression, anxiety, alexithymia, and Symptom Distress Check List (SCL-90) for general psychological symptoms. Non-depression rates was 27.5% in the mothers of autistic children whereas the rate was 55.3% in the mothers of mentally retarded children. There was no difference regarding anxiety and alexithymia between the two groups. The psychopathology in the mothers of autistic children was more frequent than in those of mentally retarded children in all sub-scales of SCL-90 (somatization obsessive-compulsive, interpersonal sensitivity, depression, anxiety, anger-hostility, phobic anxiety, paranoid thought, psychotism, and extra scale). The mothers of autistic children experienced more psychological distress than those of mentally retarded children. Our findings indicates that the assessment of autistic and mentally retarded children should include psychological assessment of their mothers.

Burden of major depressive disorder and quality of life among mothers of children with autism spectrum disorder in urban bangladesh

“…To our knowledge, this is the first direct study of mothers of children with ASD in Bangladesh that report prevalence figure for clinically assessed MDD by means of SCID‐I structured interviews following screening of depressive symptoms with PHQ‐9 assessments. The estimate of maternal depression in our study is much higher than the results reported in studies conducted in high income countries [Cohrs & Leslie, ; Olsson & Hwang, ], while consistent with studies conducted in other countries in Asia [Azeem et al, ; Firat, Diler, Avci, & Seydaoglu, ; Jose, Gupta, Gulati, & Sapra, ].…”

Influence of reporting effects on the association between maternal depression and child autism spectrum disorder behaviors

“…Mothers of children newly diagnosed with ASD reported elevated rates of depressive symptoms compared to SCL‐90 population norms from a nonclinical sample. These findings reiterate those of an earlier study of mothers of children with ASD using the SCL‐90 (Firat, Diler, Avci, & Seydaoglu, 2002). Examination of scores on the ASD measures revealed that mothers who rated themselves in the depressed range also rated their children, on average, as having significantly higher scores on the SRS questionnaire with a large effect size of .69.…”

Childhood autism spectrum disorder in the Barwon region: A community based study

“…Parents of autistic children have been described as having characteristics such as schizoid traits, aloofness, hypersensitivity, anxiety and rigidity 32,33 . Although social support networks and parental coping response need to be taken into account, it has been suggested 34 that clinicians be aware of the need for the assessment of psychological well‐being of the parents and avoid focusing only on the affected child.…”