Frequency Evaluation of Anxiety and Depression Symptoms in Mother of Children Who Suffer from Autistic Spectrum Disorder

Autistic spectrum Disorder has a strong influence on the Family life of Parents with autistic children, especially mothers are facing numerous problems. Therefore, we have designed and conducted the following study with the aim of frequency evaluation of symptoms of Anxiety and Depression in mothers with Autistic Spectrum children comparing to mothers with healthy children in Shiraz. This study is a causal - correlation study approved at the Shiraz University of Medical Sciences. Two groups of mothers were included , 59 mothers with autistic children (in the sampling Method) and 59 mothers with children who had never been diagnosed with any kind of Mental or Physical Disorder therefor, considered Healthy in the Society (in cluster sampling Method) .These two Groups were designed to compare in frequency of Anxiety and Depression symptoms. For collecting the relevant data in this Study, Beck inventory of Depression and Anxiety were used .After that data were entered into SPSS version 22 and were evaluated prior to the statistical analysis for the possible errors resolving. Statistical tests Whitney mann and chi-squared test were used for analyzing the mentioned data. The average age of mothers of these children was estimated 38 / 39 years old with a standard deviation of 8 /44 years and with range difference of 15 - 64 years old. According to the data 88 % of the women were married and 54 % of the surveyed people lived in the city though 44 % of them in the Village. Our study findings showed that a higher percentage of mothers with healthy children had no Anxiety symptoms compared to the mothers with Autistic spectrum disorder children (84% vs. 52%). Similarly , our findings showed that the level of mild to moderate Anxiety of mothers with autistic spectrum children were more than mothers with healthy children (20% Vs.16%) and results of Chi - square test showed significant level of differences (p-value<0.0001) ,thus the value of this relationship is statistically significant , and mothers with Autistic children have higher levels of Anxiety symptoms . Most mothers with healthy children had minor Depression or lack of Depression And in terms of extreme Depression this percentage was zero in these mothers. Compared to the mothers of children with Autistic spectrum Disorder, 28 percent of them suffered from mild and moderate Depression. According to the significance level of difference (P - value = 0.002) the difference between these two groups was statistically significant and mother with Autistic spectrum child had a higher level of Depression comparing to the mothers with a healthy child. Our study revealed that there is a significant differences between mothers with Autistic spectrum disorder children and mothers of healthy children in terms of frequency of Anxiety and Depression Symptoms .Mothers with Autistic spectrum children have a higher level of Anxiety and Depression symptoms comparing to mothers with healthy children.

کلیدواژه ها:

Depression ، Anxiety ، Autistic children ، Mothers ، Shiraz