Depressive and Anxiety Disorders among the Parents of Autism in Bangladesh: A Cross-Sectional Study

Repeated studies found that the presence of a child with autism spectrum disorder in the family raises the psychological burden among other members, especially parents. This study was conducted to find the burden of depressive and anxiety disorders among the parents of children with Autism. This cross-sectional study was conducted at the department of Psychiatry, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU), Dhaka, Bangladesh from January 2016 to September 2017. A total of 227 parents of children with Autism attended at above mentioned centers were consecutively included. Data were collected through face to face interview using the questionnaire for socio-demographic variables, SCID-I CV and DASS-21 Bangla. Data were processed and analyzed using SPSS, version 17.0. The mean age of the respondents was 35.5±6.7 years; over half (54.2%) of the respondents were 30-40 years old; 62.1% were female; 37.0% were housewife. The overall 60.35% of care givers had either depressive and or anxiety disorders where 31.7% depressive disorder and 28.6% had anxiety disorders. Major depressive disorder was the most common specific diagnosis and depressive disorders were significantly higher in mother. Of the depressed parents, 11.0% had moderate, 8.4% severe and 6.2% extremely severe depression whereas in terms of anxiety disorders, 9.0% had moderate, 3.1% severe and 1.3% extremely severe anxiety. The study found about 60.0% of the care givers had at least one depressive or anxiety disorders which warrants the need for early psychological assessment as well as early intervention like psychological, familial and social support to improve the quality of life of the parents of Autism Spectrum Disorder children.