Observational Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2023. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Pediatr. Jun 9, 2023; 12(3): 125-132
Published online Jun 9, 2023. doi: 10.5409/wjcp.v12.i3.125
Psychiatric disorders and caregiver burden in children with transfusion dependent β-thalassaemia and their caregivers
Samiksha Sahu, Amit Agrawal, Jyotsna Shrivastava, Sudhir Tonk
Samiksha Sahu, Department of Psychiatry, Gandhi Medical College, Bhopal 462030, Madhya Pradesh, India
Amit Agrawal, Jyotsna Shrivastava, Sudhir Tonk, Department of Pediatrics, Gandhi Medical College, Bhopal 462030, Madhya Pradesh, India
Author contributions: Sahu S participated in the data collection, and interpretation of data and executed the study; Tonk S participated in the data collection, and interpretation of data; Agrawal A participated in the data analysis and manuscript writing; Srivastava J participated in drafting and editing the final manuscript.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by the Ethics committee of Gandhi Medical College.
Informed consent statement: All study participants, or their legal guardians, provided informed written consent before study enrolment.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE Statement—a checklist of items, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE Statement—a checklist of items.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Amit Agrawal, MD, Associate Professor, Department of Pediatrics, Gandhi Medical College, Hamidia Hospital Campus, Bhopal 462030, Madhya Pradesh, India. agrawaldramit@yahoo.co.in
Received: January 28, 2023
Peer-review started: January 28, 2023
First decision: February 20, 2023
Revised: January 31, 2023
Accepted: March 31, 2023
Article in press: March 31, 2023
Published online: June 9, 2023
Processing time: 130 Days and 16.5 Hours
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
Research background

Thalassemia is highly prevalent in Indian Subcontinent with prevalence rates varying from 2%–5%. These children and their caregivers experience multiple emotional and psychological problems stemming from the poor physical health of the child and resultant recurrent hospitalisations.

Research motivation

Psychiatric co-morbidities in these children and their caregivers have remained unexplored resulting in high emotional and psychological suffering. Assessing the same would result in the recognition of high psychiatric co-morbidities faced by this subset leading to the holistic care of these patients.

Research objectives

Current study aimed to screen the psychosocial problems and assessment of psychiatric morbidities among thalassaemic children and their caretakers, along with an assessment of caregiver burden in them. The objectives of the study were all met implicating the high prevalence of psychiatric co-morbidities faced by these patients.

Research methods

In this observational cross-sectional study, children with transfusion-dependent thalassemia were included and were assessed for psychiatric morbidity and global functioning. Their parents were assessed for the psychiatric morbidity and caregiver burden faced by them. All the parents completed two different questionnaires to assess their knowledge about the psycho-social functioning [using Pediatric Symptom Checklist-35 (PSC-35)] of their children and the level of the burden faced by them by Caregiver Burden Scale (CBS).

Research results

A total of 46 children (28 boys and 18 girls) with transfusion-dependent thalassemia with a mean age of 8.83 ± 2.70 years and 46 parents (12 fathers and 34 mothers) were included in this study. More than 32 children had some psychosocial problems on screening by PSC-35. On assessment by CBS moderate caregiver burden was perceived in domains of general strain, isolation, disappointment, emotional involvement, and environment. A total of 65.3% of children and 62.7% of parents were diagnosed with psychiatric problems.

Research conclusions

The study implicated a high burden of psychiatric disorders like generalized anxiety disorder, elimination disorder, and dysthymic disorder among children. The caregivers were also revealed to be suffering from an entire spectrum of psychiatric disorders ranging from dysthymic disorders to substance addictions.

Research perspectives

More such research should be conducted with a larger sample size to better gauge the extent of psychiatric co-morbidities among these patients. There is a need to bring about a paradigm shift in the healthcare protocols to ensure holistic care of these patients and their caregivers.