BACKGROUND: Leukemia is the most common malignant neoplasm in childhood, with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) comprising 71% of cases. Partients undergo intensive course of treatment and complications, making them at risk for psychosocial difficulties. The Pediatric Symptom Checklist (PSC) is a validated psychosocial screening tool for the identification of emotional, cognitive, and behavioral problems in children. It uses subscales to identify impairments in attention, internalizing, and externalizing behaviors.

OBJECTIVE: To screen the psychosocial status of pediatric patients with ALL using the PSC. It aimed to correlate a positive PSC score with factors such age, gender, and on-going chemotherapy.

METHODS: The study design is cross-sectional. Participants were asked to answer the PSC which is a 35-item questionnaire. Total scores were calculated and interpreted based on set cut-off scores.

RESULTS: A total of 87 patients with ALL were included in the study. The PSC was able to identify 16 patients (18%) with psychosocial problems. The patients had concerns related to the internalizing subscale, followed by attention and externalizing subscales. There was no association between age, sex, duration of diagnosis, and on-going chemotherapy with the presence of psychosocial issues in patients with ALL.

CONCLUSIONS: In this study, the prevalence of psychosocial issues in patients with ALL is 16%. Screening patients using the PSC can help in the early detection of psychosocial issues among children with ALL. 

RECOMMENDATIONS: A separate study which focuses on both patients and families' psychosocial status is recommended to get an overall picture of the effect of cancer and its treatment. Screening in several points during the course chemotherapy can also be done in future studies.