Depression and anxiety in children and adolescents with familial Mediterranean fever

Abstract

Familial Mediterranean fever (FMF) is the most common autoinflammatory disease which requires a lifelong treatment. The aim of this study was to evaluate the depression and anxiety in pediatric FMF patients. The Children's Depression Inventory and the Screen for Child Anxiety-related Emotional Disorders were the instruments used. Forty-three patients with FMF and 53 healthy controls were compared. Both study and control groups were divided into two age groups, 7-12 and 13-18 years. The depression scores of patients with FMF were significantly higher than their healthy peers (p = 0.001). However, there was no significant difference between patients with FMF and control group regarding the anxiety scores (p = 0.78). The disease duration was not significantly correlated with depression and anxiety scores. There was a significant correlation between depression score and FMF severity score (p = 0.01). The mean depression and anxiety scores of the FMF patients were positively correlated with the number of attacks (p = 0.000 and p = 0.001, respectively).This study suggested that patients with FMF were considerably more depressed than their healthy peers and that the depression scores were negatively affected from disease severity score and number of attacks. Psychosocial assessment of children with FMF has potential clinical implications and individualized counseling and interventions are needed.