Mental health of the adolescents whose relatives had the somatic pathology

Introduction. The presence of severe chronic somatic pathology can lead to the development of mental (primarily anxious) disorders not only in the patient himself, but also in his family. Methods. The study was conducted in the form of a one-stage cohort anonymous questionnaire. The present research was conducted to study the characteristics of mental health of adolescents, parents and/or other members of the family which had somatic pathology. Participants in the study were adolescents (n=1137), who had never previously applied psychiatric and/or drug treatment. Results. 48.2% of respondents indicated the presence of somatic pathology in parents and other family members. The conducted study showed that the fact of somatic pathology in family members was not the immediate cause of the development of mental pathology in schoolchildren. The significantly higher level of non-psychotic mental disorders was revealed that of the respondents whose relatives had severe somatic pathology (requiring permanent medication or immediately life-threatening) and/or were in adverse social conditions. Adverse social conditions included insufficient material level, alcohol and / or drug dependence among family members. Conclusion. The high level of depressive and anxiety disorders among adolescents was detected in the presence of chronic somatic diseases in family members in two cases: 1) somatic pathology directly threatened life or required constant intake of medications, 2) there was an adverse social situation. The results obtained showed the relevance of preventive measures to reduce the level of depressive and anxiety disorders among schoolchildren whose relatives had severe, chronic somatic pathology.