Peritransplant Psychiatric Evaluation of Patients With Fanconi Anemia

Abstract

Patients with Fanconi anemia (FA) referred for stem cell transplantation (SCT) have multiple psychosocial risk factors and often present in distress in the peritransplant period. Twenty-two patients with FA were referred for psychiatry consultation before, during, or after SCT, across a 13-year period at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. The most common diagnoses were mood (50%), adjustment (46%), and anxiety (23%) disorders and delirium (23%); the most common psychiatric symptoms were anxious/depressed (86%), withdrawn (64%), and aggressive (59%) symptoms. Etiology of the diagnoses and symptoms included: chronic childhood illness, physical and/or neurodevelopmental disability, presence of a genetic syndrome, presence of a cancer predisposition syndrome, exposure to therapeutic androgens, and exposure to pediatric SCT. However, the degree of influence of the different factors could not be determined. In addition, other factors such as impact of sibling illness or loss, extent of treatment nonadherence, level and significance of neurodevelopmental pathologies were identified. Future prospective and possibly multicenter studies will need to be generated for a better understanding and more complete factor analysis.