Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the rate of psychiatric disorders in mothers of pre-school age children, who attended to child and adolescent psychiatry clinic for complaints such as anger, irritability, temper tantrum, hyperactivity and who did not receive any Axis I psychiatric disorder diagnosis in addition to family functioning.
Method: Sixty-two mothers of children aged between 2 and 6 years, who were admitted to the child psychiatry clinic for anger, irritability, temper tantrum, hyperactivity were included in the study. The control group consisted of 55 mothers of children, who were not admitted to psychiatry clinic and without any psychiatric disorders. Diagnostic interviews of the parents were conducted with Structured Clinical Interview for Axis 1 Disorders (SCID-I). Family functioning was evaluated with McMaster Family Assessment Device.
Results: The rate of any Axis I psychiatric disorders (51.6% vs 26.8%; p=0.00), any mood disorders (30.6% vs 12.5%; p=0.01), any anxiety disorders (35.5% vs 16.1%, p=0.01) were significantly more common in the mothers of children admitted to psychiatry clinic compared to the control group. The most common mood disorder was major depression (27.4% vs 5.5%), and the most common anxiety disorder was generalized anxiety disorder (19.4% vs 5.4%) in the mothers of children admitting to psychiatry clinic. Major depression, generalized anxiety disorder and obsessive compulsive disorder were significantly more common in the patient group compared to the control group (p=0.01, p=0.02, p=0.00; respectively). Similarly, perceived family functioning by mothers of children admitted to psychiatry clinic was more problematic than the controls (p=0.00).
Conclusion: The results of this study suggested that half of the mothers, who brought their children to the outpatient clinic for behavioral problems were themselves suffering from a psychiatric disorder. There is evidence that depressed mothers are less emotionally available, less responsive to their children, and more negative, critical, and restricting than nondepressed mothers. The impact of these maternal behaviors on young children may be considerable. Maternal depression has been associated with a variety of child behavior problems in clinical studies, ranging from excessive crying in newborns to academic difficulties among school-aged children. Thus, the mothers of children, who were admitted to the child psychiatry clinic with these complaints need to be screened for psychiatric symptoms and referred for psychiatric assistance when it is necessary.