Neuropsychological Assessment of Children with Transfusion Dependent Thalassemia Major

Background: Thalassemia is considered a serious public health problem due to the high prevalence which extent from the Mediterranean basin and part of Africa, throughout the Middle East. Young children may express psychological distress in the form of conduct problems and somatization while older children have a growing insight into the nature of the illness which might account for the increase in depressive symptoms. Aim: The aim of this study is to assess behavioral and emotional problems in children with thalassemia major. Subjects and Methods: This is a case control study which was conducted on 150 transfusion dependent βeta–thalassemia major patients and equal number of healthy controls with matched age and sex. Psychological assessment was done by Childhood Behavioral Check List. Results: Among all the studied cases, (56.7%) of cases had clinical total behavioral problems, internalizing disorders in (67.3%) -withdrawn/depressed in (36.7%), somatic complaint in (28.7%), anxious depressed in (21.3%), externalizing disorders in (36%), aggressive behaviors in (29.3%), rule breaking behavior in (6.7%), social problems in (19.4%), attention problems in (4.7%), thought problems in (3.3%). Conclusions: The study revealed that, ~ half of the patients with thalassemia major had a clinical psychological problem.