Psychological Morbidity of Parents of Mentally Retarded Children

The magnitude of the problem of mental retardation in our country hardly needs any exaggeration. The psychological burden that these parents carry has been varied. The present study was undertaken to delineate the psychological problems of parents of mentally retarded children and to establish whether these problems were more prevalent in the parents of mentally retarded children than in the parents of normal children. The material comprised of three groups of subjects: The first group comprised of parents of twenty students of a school for mentally handicapped children; the second group comprised of parents of ten mentally retarded children who were not institutionalised or attended any special school for mentally retarded in the past: the third group comprised of parents of twenty normal school going children. The results of the study conclusively proved that the parents of mentally retarded children had a higher prevalence of psychological morbidity than the parents of normal children. The commonest psychiatric disorder was Dysthymia followed by Generalised Anxiety Disorder and Moderate Depression.