Cognitive, Emotional, and Behavioral Problems of Children with Hemophilia

Background: Children with hemophilia are prone to a variety of psychological problems due to some limitations associated with the disease. We aimed to compare the cognitive, emotional, and behavioral problems of children with hemophilia to healthy children. Methods: This study was performed on 65 children with hemophilia and 65 healthy individuals as the control group who were between the ages of 7 and 12 years in Children’s Hospital. The Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) was used to identify emotional/behavioral problems and Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) to evaluate cognitive problems. Results: The results showed that children with hemophilia obtained lower scores in activity, academic performance, and overall competence variables. Children with hemophilia in comparison to healthy children showed more internalizing and externalizing problems and emotional and behavioral deficits. Also they demonstrated more impairment in executive functions than healthy children. Conclusion: The bio-psycho-social factors such as factors associated with the disease (e.g. anemia and bleeding), and the treatment (e.g. side effects of the drugs) and environmental and social factors are among underlying causes of some psychological problems in children with hemophilia.