Psychiatric morbidity and quality of life in children and adolescents with cystic fibrosis

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate psychiatric disorders, depressionand anxiety levels, and quality of life in children and adolescents with cysticfibrosis (CF), and to compare them with those of children with non-cysticfibrosis (non-CF) bronchiectasis and healthy controls. A total of 103 childrenand adolescents aged 7-16 years (35 CF, 28 non-CF bronchiectasis, 40 healthy)were evaluated using The Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophreniafor School Aged Children (K-SADS), The Child Depression Inventory (CDI),The State-Trait Anxiety Inventories for Children (STAI-C) and the PediatricQuality of Life Inventory (PedsQL)-C. The three groups were not statisticallydifferent with respect to age, sex, and familial sociodemographic variables.80% of the children and adolescents in the CF group were diagnosed witha psychiatric disorder, which was significantly more compared to thoseof the two other groups. The CF group had significantly greater rates ofdepressive and oppositional defiant disorder and the non-bronchiectasisgroup had a significantly greater rate of anxiety disorder than the controlgroup. The depression and anxiety symptom levels were significantly greaterand the quality of life levels significantly lower in both the CF and non-CFbronchiectasis groups than the healthy controls. In the CF group, the presenceof any associated psychiatric disorder led to significantly lower total andpsychosocial quality of life scores. In conclusion, CF is associated with poorerQOL in childhood. In order to improve quality of life in CF, the psychiatricconditions of children and adolescents should also be evaluated and theirfollow-up and treatment should involve a multidisciplinary team approach.