Depression, Anxiety, and Fatigue

Women with Hemophilia Have More Depression, Anxiety, and Fatigue than Men

By Dr. David Clark 

8/27/24 

A group of researchers in the US looked at differences between men and women with hemophilia in terms of quality of life, and mental and physical health using questionnaires.  In 118 men and 21 women with hemophilia A or B, the average age was 36.9 years.  Approximately 26.3% of the men and 85.7% of the women had mild hemophilia.  They found that the women were much more likely to experience depression, anxiety and fatigue than the men.  There were no significant differences in the other outcome measures.  The authors suggest that this highlights the need for mental health services to be integrated into the care of women with hemophilia. 

Whether this difference is due to hemophilia requires more study.  As Dr. Christine Kempton, one of the authors reports: “It was not surprising that we saw greater amounts of depression, anxiety, and fatigue; these are higher in women in the general population. We don’t know if the differences are due to gender alone, hemophilia alone, or the interaction between the two.”  [Kempton CL et al., Haemophilia, online ahead of print 8/27/24]