ESPE Abstracts

Introduction: Graves’ disease (GD) is the most common cause of the hyperthyroidism in children and adolescents. Patients may present with norological, ophtalmological, cardiovascular and psychiatric symptoms. The aim of this study is to present the sociodemographic data (age, gender, etc.), clinical findings, quality of life and psychiatric symptoms of the children diagnosed with Graves’ disease and compare these data with the control group matched as same age and gender.

Material-Methods: This is a case-control study involving 16 patients with GD (81% were female, mean age 15.1 ± SD 2.2 years) and 29 healthy controls (69% were female, mean age 14.6 ± SD 2.2 years). Sociodemographic form, quality of life scale, Anxiety Depression Scale, Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, Turgay’ Scale to assess attention deficit and disruptive behavior disorders, Emotional Reactivity Index scale to assess irritability were applied to children and parents.

Results: There was no significant difference between patients with GD and controls in terms of quality of life (child and parent forms), anxiety and depression scores in child and parent evaluations. Patients with GD achieved higher scores in the evaluation of emotional reactivity (parents form), strengths and difficulties questionnaire (parents form), and Turgay scale (p values 0.039; 0.009; 0.023, respectively). Although no significant difference was found in attention deficit and hyperactivity scores in Turgay scale sub-scores, significantly higher scores were found in oppositional defiant and conduct disorder scores (p values were 0.172; 0.294; 0.019; 0.027, respectively). There was no relationship between free T3, free T4, ophthalmopathy, goiter and these results in patients with GD.

Conclusion: Irritability, oppositional defiance symptoms and behavioral disorder symptoms were detected in children with Graves' disease. It has been observed that these accompanying psychiatric symptoms result in emotional and behavioral difficulties in children's lives. So, it is important to follow up the children with Graves' disease in terms of possible accompanying mental disorders and to handle them in a multidisciplinary team.