DEPRESSIVE DISORDERS DURING JUVENILE RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS
The article presents data on the prevalence, structure and severity of depressive disorders among 246 patients who suffer from juvenile rheumatoid arthritis and who were undergoing inpatient and sanatorium-and-resort rehabilitation stages. The influence of gender, age and clinical characteristics of the disease on the changes in the psycho-emotional sphere has been detected. The analysis of the symptomatic structure of affective pathology revealed the predominance of these changes among patients with articular-visceral form, both in quantitative terms and in terms of severity. In the clinical picture of depressive disorders, the increasing degree of activity of juvenile rheumatoid arthritis is characterized by prevailing symptoms of cognitive, behavioral and affective levels. The subdepressive states, which 61 (49.3%) patients had, are regarded as signs of mental subadjustment. We believe that the timely detection of these disorders is important from the point of view of early recognition of emotional disorders among patients with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis.