Deafness and mental health: psychiatric and psychosomatic illness in the deaf.

Abstract

The prevalence of psychiatric and psychosomatic diseases amongst patients who had become deaf in adolescence or in adult life due to otosclerosis was studied. This was to test the hypothesis that the deaf would be more susceptible to suffer from psychiatric disorders than control subjects. Assessment of 49 deaf patients who had a bilateral hearing loss of 40 dB or more and 40 control subjects who had a unilateral hearing loss of 40 dB or more by the Cornell Index N2 Questionnaire and psychiatric interview showed psychiatric illness to be significantly more common in the deaf than in the control subjects. Amongst the deaf patients, depressive illness was found to be the predominant type of psychiatric illness. There was, however, no significant difference in the prevalence of psychosomatic disorders between the two groups.The relationship of psychiatric illness in the deaf and such factors as positive psychiatric family history, the severity of deafness, living alone, duration of deafness were investigated. On the basis of the findings of this study, the significance of deafness as a psychological precipitant is discussed.