BibTeX
@MISC{Aronu_psychiatricmorbidity,
author = {Ae Aronu and Nc Ojinnaka},
title = {Psychiatric morbidity among parents of children},
year = {}
}
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Abstract
Background: Epilepsy is a common chronic neurological illness in Nigerian children. The burden of this disease is enormous and psychiatric disorders have been reported not only in the patients but even their siblings. There is a dearth of information on psychiatric morbidity among parents of children with epilepsy. This study is aimed at determining the prevalence of psychiatric morbidity among parents of children with epilepsy in our environment and the relationship with any seizure-related factors. Method: In this cross-sectional study, 308 parents of epileptic children attending the Paediatric Neurology Clinic of the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, Enugu and 308 control parents were interviewed using the 60-question version of the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-60) to obtain information on the mental health of the parents. Result: One hundred and nine index parents and 68 controls had GHQ scores of 12 and above. The difference was statistically significant with χ2 = 22.73 and p<0.001. There was a significantly higher morbidity rate among index mothers (49.4%) compared to the index fathers (20.9%) with p< 0.001. Mean GHQ scores were also significantly higher in index mothers than in controls with t = 6.14, p<0.001. Psychiatric morbidity in parents was significantly related only to seizure control with p<0.001. Conclusion: Parents of epileptic children have an increased prevalence of psychiatric morbidity and mothers are more affected than fathers. Need for an in-depth psychiatric study on parents and regular counseling is advocated.
Keyphrases
psychiatric morbidity index mother epileptic child mental health morbidity rate nigerian child seizure-related factor paediatric neurology clinic control parent common chronic neurological illness ghq score cross-sectional study index parent index father 60-question version regular counseling general health questionnaire mean ghq score nigeria teaching hospital in-depth psychiatric study psychiatric disorder
