A Psychologic Assessment of the Parents of Patients With Cleft Lip and Palate.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the psychologic burden in terms of depression, anxiety, and stress among the parents of children with congenital craniofacial deformity, nonsyndromic cleft lip and/or palate (CL/P) with early and late diagnosis and/or treatment. In this study, total 240 patients were enrolled, out of which 72 were parents (either mother/father) of CL/P children, below 10 years (group A: before adolescence), 70 were parents of CL/P children, above 10 years of age (group B: after adolescence), and 98 were parents of children with no CL/P or any other genetic disorder (group C). Depression, anxiety, and stress scale-21 was administered in all groups after obtaining the informed consent. Mean ranks of group B revealed a higher score for all the 3 psychologic domains. The CL/P was further divided into only cleft lip, only cleft palate, and both cleft lip and palate groups. A statistically significant difference was observed in group B for all the psychologic domains. Analysis of variance was applied between the groups and a P-value <0.05 was considered as statistically significant. Analysis revealed severe to extremely severe depressed state of mind and moderate to severe levels of stress in maximum parents (above 20%) of group B. However, approximately 50% parents of group B showed extremely severe anxiety. Therefore, psychologic assessment helps in providing a psychiatric or psychologic counseling and treatment to the parents of CL/P children.