title: Psychological responses to genetic counseling for Down's syndrome.
abstract: To assess some of the emotional aspects of why parents seek genetic counseling and to measure the effect of genetic counseling in parents of children with Down's syndrome, pre- and post-counseling measures of anxiety, hostility, depression, and self-concept were obtained from 43 parents. Pre-counseling responses were compared with those of normative controls, and pre- and post-counseling scores were compared for areas of significant change. Anxiety, hostility and depression levels were significantly higher in parents seeking counseling than in normative controls (both P less than 0.002). Following genetic counseling, there was a significant lowering of anxiety (P less than 0.0005) and depression (P less than 0.05) along with a significant increase in overall self-concept (P less than 0.01). The study documents the importance of looking at factors related to emotional needs and self-image of parents in genetic counseling.
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001007:Anxiety; D003863:Depression; D004314:Down Syndrome; D005260:Female; D005817:Genetic Counseling; D006791:Hostility; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010290:Parents; D012649:Self Concept; D013315:Stress, Psychological