Depressive and Anxiety Symptoms among Pediatric In-Patients with Dengue Fever: A Case-Control Study

Abstract

Background: Psychiatric symptoms have been reported in adult patients with dengue fever (DF); however, information on pediatric patients remains inadequate. We sought to identify the prevalence and predictors of depressive and anxiety symptoms and identify other psychiatric symptoms among pediatric patients with DF. This case-control study involved pediatric in-patients (n = 225) who had clinical or serologic-confirmed DF and healthy school-based controls (n = 260). Participants completed the Revised Child Anxiety and Depression Scale (RCADS). Results: The prevalence of depressive (13.3%) and anxiety (34.2%) symptoms among pediatric patients with DF was significantly (p < 0.001) higher than that among controls (3.5% and 16.2%, respectively). Multiple linear regression analysis found that age, family history of DF, ≤2 days of hospitalization, myalgia, and arthralgia were predictors of increased depressive and anxiety symptoms among the patients. Further, 26.7% of pediatric patients reported irritability, agitation, visual hallucinations, and aggressiveness. Conclusion: Pediatric patients present depressive and anxiety symptoms whose levels were associated with social and clinical factors. However, whether these symptoms are present only during the infection or may still persist after recovery or are brought by children’s adverse reactions to hospitalization are unknown, and thus, further studies are needed.

Dengue and Psychiatry: Manifestations, Mechanisms, and Management Options

“…19 A case-control study involving pediatric population observed the prevalence of depression (13.3%) and anxiety symptoms (34.2%) during acute dengue infection to be significantly higher than matched controls. 23 Further, around 25% of the admitted children exhibited agitation, aggression, irritability, and visual hallucinations. Delayed psychiatric manifestations of dengue infection were reported to be predominantly depression and anxiety.…”

“…This included 18 case reports, one case series, and eight observational studies. A detailed review of the eight observational studies [16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23] (five cross-sectional, two case-control, and one cohort study) is provided below and summarized in Table 1.…”

“…[46][47][48] The supportive management for dengue fever primarily involves anti-inflammatory agents and corticosteroids. But, studies on psychiatric manifestations either completely neglected to report the management details of primary dengue infection [17][18][19][20]23,38 or did not clearly specify the agents and the doses used. 16,21 The literature exploring psychiatric manifestations in relation to these agents used to treat dengue is more important given the well-known association of some of them in precipitating behavioral and mood symptoms.…”

Early Life Exposure to Above Average Rainfall and Adult Mental Health*

“…The dengue virus is endemic inIndonesia and Southeast Asia (de Jong et al, 2018). Infection with the dengue virus is associated with depressive symptoms in pediatric patients(Herbuela et al, 2019) and was prevalent among children 1-to 5-years old (between 10% and 20%) during the period we study(Karyanti et al, 2014).7 With respect to increasing the incidence of malaria, the estimated impacts of positive rainfall shocks have positive coefficient but not statistically significant.© 2023 Oxford University and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.…”

Integrating Spatial Modelling and Space–Time Pattern Mining Analytics for Vector Disease-Related Health Perspectives: A Case of Dengue Fever in Pakistan

“…Compared to the previous 50 years, the recent global incidence of dengue has climbed to 30-fold [12][13][14], and the unavailability of a safe vaccine is further worsening the menace [15]. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimated ~390 million annual DF infections in 128 countries, placing ~3.9 billion people at risk [16][17][18][19].…”