Background: Mastocytosis manifests with multisystemic symptoms, often involving the nervous system. Numerous cognitive, neuropsychiatric and neurological alterations have been reported in multiple observational studies.
Methods: We performed a qualitative systematic literature review of reported data consulting the electronic databases Medline, Scopus, Web of Science, Cochrane, and BASE until June 2023.
Results: We selected 24 studies in which the majority showed that a high proportion of mastocytosis patients suffer cognitive, neuropsychiatric and neurological alterations. The most common disorders and estimated ranges of frequency observed in adults were depression (68%-75%), anxiety, high stress or irritability (27%-54%), cognitive impairment (27%-39%, primarily affecting memory skills), and headaches (55%-69%). Attention challenges and learning difficulties were reported in children at a rate of 13%, while neurodevelopmental disorders occurred at rates of 8%-12%. Frequent white abnormalities in mastocytosis patients with concomitant psychocognitive symptoms have been reported although neuroimaging studies have been performed rarely in this population.
Conclusion: Further studies with more comprehensive and homogeneous evaluations and neuroimaging and histological analysis should be performed for a better understanding of these manifestations. An earlier detection and proper management of these symptoms could greatly improve the quality of life of these patients.
Keywords: cognitive impairment; dementia; mastocytosis; neurologic; psychiatric.
© 2023 The Authors. Clinical and Translational Allergy published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.