The impact of physiotherapist counseling in improvement on anxiety and depression behavior in mothers of children with disabilities in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: Randomized control trial

It is known that the parents of children with disabilities, especially the mothers are much more under stress; and this situation have negative impacts. Problems such as high levels of irritability, aggressive verbal and physical behaviors, depression and anxiety are frequently seen among them. Purpose: This study aims to assess the level of anxiety and depression among the mothers of children with disabilities, and to evaluate the impact of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) techniques on anxiety and depression symptoms in these mothers in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). We also evaluated how the mother's CBT intervention influenced the child's therapy performance. Method: This study is a single-blinded, parallel intervention and control groups randomized clinical trial with the allocation ratio 1:1. 70 participants were chosen and recruited based on the children data registered in Disabled Children Association in Jeddah in KSA. The assessment of anxiety and depression symptoms was conducted using Beck Anxiety and Beck Depression Inventories and CBT was used as the intervention therapy for mothers allocated in the intervention group. The data were collected, coded, and statistical analyzed. Results: CBT techniques had improved the anxiety and depression in mothers of disabled children (p<0.001, p<0.001). A blinded physiotherapist evaluated the performance of the children's physical therapy sessions and reported that the ones whose mothers took CBT demonstrated better performance compared to the control group (p=0.016). Conclusion: Supporting mothers of the children with disabilities with CBT can be beneficial to both decrease anxiety and depression symptoms in mothers and have the potential to create positive impacts in children physical therapy results.