Psychiatric morbidity among informal caregivers of children suffering from intellectual developmental disorders

Objective: To assess the presence of psychiatric morbidity and associated socio-demographic factors among informal caregivers of children suffering from intellectual developmental disorders. Method: The analytical cross-sectional study was conducted at the Neurology Department of a tertiary care hospital in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, from January 1, 2018, to December 31, 2019, and comprised informal caregiver of children diagnosed with intellectual developmental disorders presenting at the paediatric or neurology outpatient clinics of the hospital. Intellectual developmental disorder was diagnosed by consultant neurologists or psychiatrists or paediatricians on the basis of International Classification of Diseases-11 criteria. Psychiatric morbidity in the informal caregiver was assessed using the 12-item general health questionnaire. Data was analysed using SPSS 23, and binary logistic regression was applied to assess association. Results: Of the 500 informal caregivers, 323(64.6%) showed psychiatric morbidity. Increasing age and comorbid epilepsy among the patients were significantly related to the presence of psychiatric morbidity among the informal caregivers (p<0.05). Conclusion: Majority of informal caregivers of children with learning difficulties were found to have psychiatric morbidity.