PSYCHOLOGICAL PROBLEMS ASSOCIATED WITH THALASSEMIA IN DIYALA PROVINCE, IRAQ

Background: Beta-thalassemia major is a chronic disorder of blood, having an extensive impact on the affected child. It involves lifelong therapeutic regime, with repeated blood transfusions. With improved life expectancy, due to improved medical management psychosocial aspects of thalassemia are gaining importance. Objectives: Thalassemia is a chronic disease that manifests early in life that it leads to psychological and social problems for parents .We focused on parents to assess the impact of their child’s disease and to assess the behavioral problems in multi-transfused thalassemic children and psychosocial factors affecting them. Material and methods: This is a cross sectional study conducted in the Thalassemia Centre of Al-batool teaching hospital, Diyala, Iraq. The study was carried out from August 2013 to April 2014, parents who fulfilled the inclusion criteria were included in the study. The criteria were: a) established diagnosis of thalassemia of their child and the child was registered with the Thalassemia Centre for regular blood transfusion, b) parents who provided consent for the study Results: The CBCL total scores were high in 32% patients, indicating the presence of behavioral problems. Higher CBCL scores were found in children of older age group, those with poor school performance, whose mothers' education was more than eighth standard, had history of death of thalassemic relative in family, greater duration of diagnosed illness, poor pre-transfusion hemoglobin level, and who had longer periods of school absenteeism. Conclusions: Behavioral problems are common in multi-transfused thalassemic children. Early diagnosis and intervention of behavioral problems in these children would make them cope with thalassemia better.