The burden of psychiatric illnesses in adult patients with beta-thalassemia: a 5-year nationwide inpatient evaluation in the United States

Beta-thalassemia (ß-thalassemia) is a frequently inherited monogenic disorder worldwide with severe physical and mental health comorbidities. The aim of this study is to evaluate the burden of psychiatric disorders in adult patients hospitalized with ß-thalassemia in the United States (US). We utilized the discharge data from the National Inpatient Sample (NIS) from 2010 through 2014 to identify hospitalized ß-thalassemia patients who are 18 years and older. We assessed categorical and continuous variables using chi-square test and Student’s t test respectively. The burden of psychiatric disorders was assessed using descriptive statistics and represented in terms of frequency (n) and percentage (%). A p value threshold of < 0.05 was considered clinically significant. All statistical analyses were performed using SPSS version 22.0 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, USA). Of the 10,046 ß-thalassemia patients studied, 24.4% (n = 2448) reported psychiatric disorders. Mood disorders (15.2%; inclusive of 10.3% depression), followed by anxiety (9.4%), and substance abuse disorder (6.5%; 4.3% drug abuse, 2.2% alcohol abuse) were most prevalent. Comorbid mental illnesses increased the length of stay by 44.6% and total costs by 23.4%. All-cause mortality rate was reported at 1.9% in overall ß-thalassemia patients. This study highlights higher rates of psychiatric disorders such as depression and anxiety and correlated increases in length of stay and cost in hospitalized ß-thalassemia patients. To improve medical outcomes and curtail unnecessary health-care costs, implementation of an integrated care model can be considered.