Mental Disorders in Deaf and Hard of Hearing Adult Outpatients: A Comparison of Linguistic Subgroups

Abstract

Deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) individuals who use signed language and those who use spoken language face different challenges and stressors. Accordingly, the profile of their mental problems may also differ. However, studies of mental disorders in this population have seldom differentiated between linguistic groups. Our study compares demographics, mental disorders, and levels of distress and functioning in 40 patients using Norwegian Sign Language (NSL) and 36 patients using spoken language. Assessment instruments were translated into NSL. More signers were deaf than hard of hearing, did not share a common language with their childhood caregivers, and had attended schools for DHH children. More Norwegian-speaking than signing patients reported medical comorbidity, whereas the distribution of mental disorders, symptoms of anxiety and depression, and daily functioning did not differ significantly. Somatic complaints and greater perceived social isolation indicate higher stress levels in DHH patients using spoken language than in those using sign language. Therefore, preventive interventions are necessary, as well as larger epidemiological and clinical studies concerning the mental health of all language groups within the DHH population.

Traumatization and Trauma Cases: Childhood Adversity and Deafness

“…In addition to the risk for later psychiatric and somatic pathology, recipients of childhood adversity present markedly smaller regional volumes of the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex in comparison with healthy control participants, a consistent finding in traumatized youths and adults [22]. Alarmingly, the presence of emotional or sexual abuse-trauma was associated with borderline personality disorder the study by Øhre, et al [33] 15% of the patients using Norwegian Sign Language had signing parents. The data thus points clearly to the risk of language deprivation and is in the same level as was reported by Mitchell & Karchmer [34] who report that more than 90% of deaf children are born to hearing parents.…”

Health outcomes in Deaf signing populations: a systematic review

“…Using inadequate access to direct child-caregiver communication in childhood as the independent variable, Kushalnagar et al [39] identified that it increased a person's risks of having diabetes by 12%, hypertension by 10%, lung disease by 19% and cardiovascular disease by 61% and increased risk for depression/anxiety by 34% compared to those Deaf people who had adequate access to indirect family communication and inclusion [39]. No significant difference in the scores for mood or neurosis were found between those Deaf people who used sign language and deaf people who used spoken language [40].…”

Assessment of psychotic disorders among prelingually deaf individuals

“…In the process of the formation of self-belief (including self-esteem and agency) and beliefs about the world communication is of major importance , especially in the closest environment, and the feedback received therein [ 19 ]. Not sharing a language with parents leads to distress in adolescents [ 20 ]. The consequences of such language barrier- induced distress might include feeling misunderstood or unsafe in the relationship with parents, which subsequently increases the risk of maldevelopment – in terms of the formation of a maladaptive attachment style, and later social withdrawal or the development of dysfunctional cognitive tendencies.…”