DefinePK

Abstract

Background: Children suffering from cerebral palsy (CP) experience many medical, social and psychological problems. Their family members, undertake a lot of difficulties emotionally, physically, socially, and economically. The study aimed to estimate the severity of depression in mothers looking after children suffering from severe CP and compared their depression scores with the scores of mothers having healthy children. Depression scores were correlated with the plasma oxytocin levels of the mothers. Methods: This cross-sectional comparative study included 21 mothers having children suffering from severe CP and 21 controls. All mothers were below 40 years of age. Depression was estimated using the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). Plasma oxytocin was measured using Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA). Results: A statistically significant difference was observed between the mean scores of BDI II between the two groups (p=0.011). By applying the Spearman correlation test, depression scores showed a negative significant correlation with the plasma oxytocin levels. Conclusion: Mothers having CP children are more prone to depression than mothers having healthy children. The significant negative correlation of plasma oxytocin levels with depression scores suggests its predictive role in depression and its use in adjunct therapy in treatment plans.
Pak J Physiol 2025;21(3):14-7, DOI: https://doi.org/10.69656/pjp.v21i3.1722