Mental Health Issues and Illnesses in Congenital Heart Disease Patients

Dear Colleagues,

Congenital heart disease is a large, rapidly emerging global problem in child health. Nowadays, it is estimated that 85% of infants born with congenital heart disease will survive to adulthood, mainly thanks to advances in infant medicine and surgery made in recent decades. In these patients, mental illnesses, which involve changes in emotion, thinking, or behavior, mental disorders, psychosocial disabilities, and mental states associated with social, work, or family problems, are common and may be related to factors such as overprotection, traumatic experiences, multiple hospital admissions, device implantation, or genetic predisposition. In fact, existing data show that depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, psychosis, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and autism spectrum disorders occur more often in people with congenital heart disease than in healthy counterparts. Accordingly, parental distress has been reported more frequently in those parents with children with more severe congenital heart disease conditions. It is therefore important to conduct studies to determine the prevalence and risk factors of suffering from mental illnesses in patients with congenital heart disease and their families.

Dr. Efrén Martínez-Quintana
Guest Editor

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• congenital heart disease
• mental illness
• psychological problems
• education