Mental health status of beta-thalassemia major in Mazandaran Province in 2006

Beta-thalassemia major (TM), a chronic, genetically determined hematological disorder, has received little investigation on the psychological aspects of the disease and the psychosocial adjustment of patients with this anemia. In the present study, the aim was to explore the nature of psychopathology according to age, sex, school performance, severity and complications of the disease in TM patients.
Methods and Materials: A Cross-section descriptive study was conducted at the 14-Thalassemia Unit of different hospitals of Mazandaran province Iran in 2006,. Psychological aspects were evaluated by the Persian version of symptoms checklist-90-revised questionnaire. Information on relevant demographic characteristics, school performance, severity and complications of the disease was collected by one of the investigators who created the questionnaire. Analysis of data was done by Chi square method, t test and one way ANOVA.
Results: 687 (41.08%) of the 1672 eligible patients with TM completed the questionnaires. The mean age of the participations was 21.93±5.90 years and with a range of 15-45 years. 363 (52.8%) were female, 602 (6.87%) were single, 465 (67.7%) had not higher educational level. In our study, 446 (64.9%) of TM patients had GSI > 0.7 as psychiatric patients, 141 (20.5%) had GSI between 0.4 to 0.7 as suspected psychiatric patients, and 100 (14.6%) had GSI < 0.4 as non-psychiatric patients.
Conclusion: These findings show that beta-thalassemia major patients are at risk for psychiatric symptomatology and need appropriated psychiatric consults.