Psychosocial adjustment of thalassaemic children's siblings

beta-Thalassaemia is a chronic disease causing serious symptoms to the patients and considerable burden to their families. The psychopathology and psychosocial adjustment of 71 siblings of thalassaemic patients and 71 matched control subjects were investigated. Siblings of thalassaemic patients were found to have significantly more psychiatric disorders than the control subjects (p < 0.05). The frequency of psychopathology among the patients' siblings, when compared to the controls, was significantly greater after the age of 10 years (p < 0.01), with no difference between the two groups before the age of 10. Siblings of thalassaemic patients also scored significantly lower on sports and nonsports activities and on social functioning in terms of number of friends and number of contacts with them. These findings show that siblings of thalassaemic patients are at risk for psychiatric symptomatology and for impaired psychosocial functioning.