The impact of chronic immune thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP) on the psychological health and quality of life is evident among children and adolescents. We aimed to describe psychological disorders and assess quality of life in children with chronic ITP and compared their results with their healthy peers. A cross-sectional comparative study was carried out in a tertiary care university-affiliated hospital during a period from November, 2015 till April, 2018. We enrolled 119 children with chronic ITP and compared with 220 healthy peers. Relevant demographic and clinical data were collected and statistically analyzed. Quality of life for both patients and control groups was measured using pediatric quality of life inventory version 4 (Arabic one). Also psychiatric evaluation of both groups was done using Arabic version of Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview for Children (Mini-KID). Majority of patients (90.7%) exhibited mucocutaneous bleeding. Most of patients (61.3%) did not need any definitive treatment for chronic ITP while 38.6% received second line therapy. About one-third of the patients needed rescue medications to control active bleeding. The scores of all sub-scales of Peds QL 4.0 were significantly decreased among patients group when compared to their healthy peers (P < 0.001). General anxiety disorder and oppositional defiant disorders were the commonest psychiatric disorders among children with chronic ITP. Quality of life in children with chronic ITP is markedly impaired with occurrence of a variable spectrum of psychiatric disorders among the studied patients.
Keywords: Children; Immune thrombocytopenic purpura; Psychiatry; Quality of life.