Psychosocial problems in thalassemic adolescents and young adults

Background: With the availability of better treatment regimen, life span of thalassemic patients is increasing. Chronic nature of thalassemia and its intensive and demanding treatment result in significant psychologic burden on the patients and their families. A lot has been studied about beta-thalassemia major but little attention has been paid to the psychological aspect of this disease. Hence, the study was planned to analyse the psychosocial problems in thalassemic adolescents and young adults. Materials and Methods: This was a cross-sectional study, conducted from January 2007 to March 2008 in thalassemic day-care centre of a tertiary care teaching hospital. Fifty four thalassemic children and controls above 9 years of age were enrolled. Psychosocial assessment done with assessment of Finer Psychopathology using ICMR Symptom checklist (ICMR task force, 1983). The prevalence of various problems was calculated and compared with controls. Student's t-test and Chi-square test were used for testing differences in variables. Results: Patients were divided into three groups - Group A (10-15 years, 30 patients); Group B (15-20 years, 18 patients), and Group C (20-25 years, 6 patients). In group A, behavior problems were common (12 patients -40%) (P Conclusion: Our findings support the hypothesis that psychosocial problems are more in thalassemic adolescents and young adults. Psychosocial aspects need to be addressed in the overall treatment of children with thalassemia.