Frequency of Depression in Mothers of Learning-Disabled Children

Objective: To determine the frequency of depression in mothers caring for learning-disabled children. Subjects and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted at Department of Psychiatry, Benazir Bhutto Hospital Rawalpindi from May 2011 till 14th January 2012. In total 96 mothers of Learning disabled children, were consecutively recruited, from out patient department of Institute of Psychiatry, Benazir Bhutto Hospital. After obtaining written informed consent, Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) Urdu version was administered to assess the severity of depression; rated as ‘mild’. ‘mild-moderate’, moderate- severe’ and ‘severe’ depression. The data were entered on SPSS version 10 for further analysis. Results: In total 89.6% of the mothers were found depressed. Among these 27.1% had mild- moderate depression, 26.4% had moderate-severe depression and 36.1% were found to have severe depression. Conclusion: A high frequency of depression was observed in mothers caring for learning disabled children; frequency steadily increasing with severity of depression. This issue thus needs immediate attention for better heath related quality of mothers and better childcare. Key