Psychiatric disorders and symptoms severity in preschool children with atopic eczema

BackgroundTo compare with a control group the frequency of psychiatric disorders and severity of psychiatric symptoms in preschool children with atopic eczema.MethodsThe study included children between the ages of 3–5 who were diagnosed to have atopic eczema. The parents of the children with atopic eczema were interviewed in person and were asked to fill in “The Early Childhood Inventory-4” form. This form assesses the psychiatric disorders and symptoms severity in children between the ages of 3–5.ResultsThe atopic eczema group included 80 patients (38 male, 42 female) with a mean age of 48.4 ± 15.7 months and the control group included 74 patients (41 male, 33 female) with a mean age of 49.9 ± 15.19 months. It was established that 68.8% of the group with atopic eczema received at least one psychiatric diagnosis. Between the psychiatric disorders, ADHD (Odds ratio: 2.57, 95% CI: 1.049–6.298, p = 0.035), enuresis and encopresis (Odds ratio: 2.39, 95% CI: 1.121–5.097, p = 0.022) and attachment disorder (Odds ratio: 2.03, 95% CI: 1.046–3.953, p = 0.035) were found to be significantly higher when compared with the healthy control group. When the groups were compared in terms of psychiatric symptom severity scores calculated by using ECI-4, ADHD severity (p = 0.043), conduct disorder severity (p = 0.001), anxiety disorders severity (p < 0.001), eating disorders severity (p = 0.011) and tic disorder severity (p = 0.01) were found to be higher in the atopic eczema group.ConclusionPsychiatric illnesses are frequent in preschool children with atopic eczema.