Relationship between Depression, Anxiety, Quality of Life and Vaso-occlusive Crisis in Adolescents with Sickle Cell Disease

Aims: To explore the relationship between frequency of pain episodes and depression, anxiety, and health related quality of life (HRQOL) in adolescents with sickle cell disease (SCD). Materials and methods: Ten males and twelve females, between the ages of 12 and 19, selected during admittance to pediatric hematology outpatients of city hospital with a vaso-occlusive crisis in the period between September 2012 and February 2013, were included in the study. Beck Depression (BDI) and Anxiety Inventories (BAI), and Short Form Health Survey (SF-36) were used to evaluate depression, anxiety and HRQOL. Results: Nine (40.9%) of the adolescents with SCD had BDI scores higher or equal to 17. In the whole group, 3 (13.6%) patients did not have anxiety, while 14 (63.6%) of them had mild and 4 (18.2%) had moderate anxiety. Physical and mental components of HRQOL were not correlated to BDI and BAI scores. Patients with frequent pain episodes (>10 annually) were found to have tendency to depression and anxiety while their mental and physical components of HRQOL were lower than patients with infrequent pain episodes (<5 annually). Conclusion: Depression and anxiety in adolescents with SCD was found relatively high, while Physical and Mental components of HRQOL were relatively low. However, Physical and Mental Health of the patients was not affected from depression and anxiety presence. Pain episode frequency might be the main determinant of higher depression and anxiety and lower HRQOL component scores.