Frequency and severity of depression in mothers of cerebral palsy children

Cerebral palsy (cp) is a term used for non-progressive brain malformation during the development of brain,affects body movement and motor function. the global prevalence of cp is roughly ranging 1.4 to 4 per 1000 live births. it is observed that parents of cp child especially mothers has elevated levels of stress and depression than a mother of normal children. objective: to determine the frequency and severity of depression in mothers of children with cerebral palsy attending tertiary care hospital. material & methods: this is descriptive cross sectional study conducted at department of neurology civil hospital karachi/dow university of health sciences from 01st march 2013 to 31st august 2013. data was collected from neurology opd,civil hospital karachi and rehabilitation centre duhs karachi. urdu version of siddiqui-shah depression scale (ssds) questionnaire used as a tool to identify depression among mothers’ of cp child. results: a total of 81 mothers,the primary caregiver of the cp children with history of cerebral palsy of at least 6 months duration,were evaluated. out of those 40(49.38%) mothers of children with cerebral palsy had depression. among them 30% (12/40) had mild depression,60% (24/40) moderate and 10% (4/40) had severe depression. conclusion: depression is very much prevalent among mothers of cp children. this finding demands development of some effective guidelines,for the management of entire family particularly mother of a cp child. © 2016,liaquat university of medical and health sciences. all rights reserved.