Problemy psychologiczne, jakość i satysfakcja z życia u osób chorujących na mastocytozę

Mastocytosis belongs to a group of myeloproliferative disorders. It is an orphan disease related to the proliferation of the mast cells in different organs. The important role is its impact on the patient's health and satisfaction in life and causes psychological symptoms like depression, amnesia, sexual symptoms, and anxiety. Depression is diagnosed in 50 to 64% of patients. It is regarded as the symptom of mastocytosis, not as an adaptive situation that resulted from distress. The disease-related anxiety is present in 73% of patients. The impairment of the quality of life is a result of the chronic nature of the disease. It impacts also the patients with mild forms of mastocytosis without the coexisting disability. The impairment of the quality of life is related more to a subjective patient self-assessment, than to severity of the objective symptoms. The most important element of the treatment of psychological symptoms in mastocytosis is that the patient education focused on the individual symptoms. Several patient organizations provide help for the patients in different countries, including one developed this year in Poland.