RESUMO
UNLABELLED: Objective: To describe depression levels in school aged children and adolescents with acute leukemia during the treatment. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This transversal descriptive study took place during January to September 2012 and included school aged children and adolescents, carriers of acute leukemia, in treatment at a high-ranking specialty hospital. A modified Kovacs questionnaire (C O/) was applied. They were grouped according to presence or absence of depression. Inferential statistics with x2 and Statistical package SPSS 20.0 were used. RESULTS: Forty-six patients were included in the study: with depression n = 43 (94%), without depression n=3 (6%), males n= 32 (70%) and females n=14 (30%), average age 8 years old (7-15). Acute lymphoblast leukemia was the most frequent n=42 patients (91 %). Depression was found in 42 patients (91 "'o), with nine presenting a minor level (21 "'o), 11 a moderate level (26 "/o), and 23 a severe level (53 "/o). Mostly during the consolidation phase, 30 patients (70"/o) patients with no relapses showed a higher incidence of depression, 23 (54 "/o) vs. with relapses 20 (47"/o) (p = 0.870); the majority had no family history of depression 41 (95 "/o) vs. 2 (5"/o) (p = 0.017). CONCLUSIONS: We found a high percentage of severe level depression, which affected mostly male patients, suffering a relapse during the consolidation treatment phase.