Background Rheumatic diseases (RD) in children are characterized by a wide spectrum of clinical manifestations, and variability of flow, the defeat of many body systems, including the musculoskeletal system, which often leads to early disability. The disease brings the children not only physical suffering and psychological distress as a result of the pathological process may be sufficiently stable defects in appearance, affecting the minds of the growing person.

Objectives To study the psychological characteristics of children with rheumatic diseases.

Methods 167 patients with RD were examined in the period from 2008 to 2015. In the I group included 115 children with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) (mean age 11,9±3,4 years), II group consisted of 34 children with juvenile scleroderma (JS) (mean age 12,4±2,8 years), III - 18 children with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) (mean age 13,1±1,7 years). As control group examined 30 healthy children aged 9–17 years (mean age 12,93±0,4 years). To investigate the expression of reactive anxiety (RA) and personal anxiety (PA) in children older than 9 years was used scale Ch.D.Spielberg. In order to study the intensity of anxiety was used M.Luscher color test. To identify the individual psychological characteristics of the individual patient questionnaire used G.J.Eysenck for teenagers, consisting of 60 questions, including the scale of extroversion, introversion, neuroticism and the scale of “the scale of lies”. Testing patients and interpretation of the results was carried out together with a psychologist.

Results The test Spielberg results indicate that significantly more (P<0.001), medium and high levels of anxiety both reactive and personal, occurred in children with RD. This suggests the presence of children with RD border states with the threat of self-assessment features, reducing the threshold of resistance to stressful situations. The average RA and PA indices were significantly higher (P<0.001) in children with RD in comparison with indicators of reactive and personal anxiety in children in the control group (46,09±0,88 points for the JS, 43,77±1,37 points for JIA, 45,07±1,83 points for SLE and 27,6±0,62 points for the control group, respectively, RA; 42,22±1,68 points for the JS, 37,84±1,27 points for the JIA, 44,76±0,88 points for SLE and 28,7±0,51 points, respectively, RA for the control group).

Results of the study with the help of M.Lusher's color test revealed the intensity of anxiety in children with JS, SLE and JIA. Evaluation results of the study showed that children and adolescents with RD clearly manifested trend bias pri-mary colors on the 6,7,8 positions, and more - in the first place.

In order to identify characteristics of temperament in patients aged 13–17 years were asked to complete a questionnaire G.J.Eysenck for undergrowth Cove. The majority of surveyed teens both clinical groups manifest emotional instability (73.3% of patients with JS and 70% of patients with JIA) and features typical of introversion (60% of patients with SS and 68% of patients with JIA) (verified differences were found) between the groups. According to G.J.Eysenck, high rates of introversion in conjunction with emotional instability correspond to the alarm state.

Conclusions As a result, psychometric studies found that the characteristic of emotional tension, anxiety, isolation for children with RD.

Disclosure of Interest None declared