Mental health status of Iranian beta-thalassemia major patients in southern coastwise of the Caspian Sea

Background and Objectives: Beta-thalassemia major (TM), a chronic, genetically determined hematological disorder, has received little investigation on the psychological aspects of the disease. In the present study, the aim was to explore the nature of psychological aspects in TM patients. Materials and Methods: A Cross-section descriptive study was conducted at the 16-Thalassemia Unit of different hospitals of Mazandaran province, Iran in 2006. Psychological aspects were evaluated by the two questionnaires including; demographic characteristics, and the Persian version of symptoms checklist-90-revised questionnaire. Results: 687 (41.08%) of the 1672 eligible patients with TM completed the questionnaires. The mean age of the participations was 21.93±5.90 years and with a range of 15-45 years. 52.8% (n = 363) were female, and mostly were single (68.7%), and 67.7% had not higher educational level. 64.9% (n = 446) of TM patients had Global Severity Index (GSI) > 0.7 as psychiatric patients, (n = 141, 20.5%) had GSI between 0.4 and 0.7 as suspected psychiatric patients, and (n = 100, 14.6%) had GSI < 0.4 as non-psychiatric patients. Conclusion: These findings show that beta-thalassemia major patients are at risk for psychiatric symptomatology and need appropriated psychiatric consults.