The relationship between clinical and neuropsychological variables in the mental health of children with sickle cell disease

Objective: Compare psychological complaints of children with sickle cell disease (SCD) without clinical or radiological evidence of CVD, to a healthy group to find correlations between neuropsychological triages, clinical, and therapeutic variables. Method: A cross-sectional, descriptive, and analytical study was conducted. Sixty-five children with SCD and controls were subjected to neuropsychological avaliation while their caretakers responded to a survey on psychopathology. The results were compared between the groups and correlated with intelligence quotient (IQ), academic performance, clinical complications, and therapies. Results: The case group presented worse performance than the control group on the CBCL items referring to internalizing and externalizing problems. A direct, proportional relationship was identified between psychopathology, IQ, and academic performance. Conclusion: Children with SCD showed worse results in the psychopathological evaluation than healthy children, and psychopathological complaints were related to IQ and academic performance, which could suggest an indirect relationship between cognitive deterioration and psychopathology.