Parental mental illness and their offspring’s mental health in Rwanda: neuropsychiatric hospital of Rwanda

Abstract

Background: Offspring of the parents with mental disorders are at higher risk to have the mental diseases throughout the world. This study examined the association between psychopathology of parents and the mental health of their offspring in Neuropsychiatric Hospital of Rwanda, Butare Branch. Methods: A cross-sectional study made up of case and control offspring was conducted on the case group made up of 80 offspring born to parents with mental diseases and a control group of 80 offspring from parents without mental disease. Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HRSD, α = 0.82), Posttraumatic stress disorders scale (PTSD, α = 0.73) and the Test of Psychological Problems (TPP, α = 0.93) were used. STATISTICA version 8 was used for statistical analysis. Results: Results indicated a significance difference between the two groups on depressive symptoms, psychological problems and PTSD symptomatology. The case group seemed to experience high level symptoms than the control group. Results indicated that, among the offspring born to parents with mental disease, there was a significant correlation between anxiety and depression symptoms (r = 0.71, p