Blood lead level in children with behavioral and or psychiatric disorders

ABSTRACT

A case-control study was carried out compromising 60 children enrolled into two groups Group I included 40 cases suffering from different behavioral and/or psychiatric disorders and group II included 20 clinically healthy children serving as controls. Full medical history taking, assessment of exposure to risk factors of lead poisoning as well as its symptomatology using a standardized questionnaire, thorough clinical examination, delineation of behavior problems using Arabic translated child behavior checklist, diagnosis of psychiatric disorders in the studied cases using DSM IV criteria, scaling of depression and anxiety using children depression inventory [CDI] and child manifest anxiety scale, respectively, for children above the age of eight years, cognitive function assessment, language age and language age delay estimation, complete blood count, blood smear examination, assessment of blood indices and estimation of blood lead level using the technique of flameless atomic absorption spectrophotometry were done for all children enrolled in the current study. The current study showed a significant direct link between blood lead level and inattentiveness, conduct disorder and socialized aggression in the studied sample of cases with behavior and/or psychiatric disorders as well as a significant negative correlation with the patients' cognitive abilities and some hematological variables; namely, hemoglobin and mean corpuscular hemoglobin