Case-control study on psychological characteristies of children suffering from congenital heart disease

ObjectiveTo assess the psychological characteristics of children with congenital heart disease(CHD).MethodsThe personality,behavior,intelligence quotient(IQ)and s cial adaptive behavior(SAB)of 191 children suffering from CHD were measured by means of EPQ,CBCL,CRT and SAB scales.One hundred of sex,age,education and a chievement matched healthy children were enrolled as control.ResultsThe Nscore of CHD children was obviously higher than that of the healthy children(P<0.001).The cyanotic children showed significant higher scores compared to acyanotic children(P<0.05).The mentality and behavior abnormal rates of the boys and girls with CHD were evidently higher than those of controls(P<0.01,P<0.05).The behavior abnormities of the boys presented as depression,social flinch,physical complaints,assault and violating rules.Whereas the girls presented as depression,social flinch,physical complaints and violating rules.There was no significant difference between the acyanotic group and the controls in the mean IQ(P>0.05).However,the IAs core of cyanotic group was lower than that of controls(P<0.05).Compared with the healthy control group,the adaptive deviation quotient(ADQ)of the CHD groups was significantly lower than that of controls(P<0.01,P<0.05).ConclusionCHD is associated with personality characteristics of neuroticism and abnormal behavior.The social adaptive behavior of the CHD children and the intelligence quotients in cyanotic children are significantly lower with comparison to the healthy children.