Mental health monitoring in adolescents with SLE: associations with lupus low disease activity state and remission
Authors' conclusion
Mental health monitoring over 6-12 months apart revealed changes in depressive symptoms, anxiety and sleep quality during routine paediatric SLE care.
Study context
- Population
- Adolescents aged 12–18 years diagnosed with SLE; mostly female (90.5%), mean age 15.1±0.2 years117 with complete paired assessments
- Participants
- 120 adolescents
- Exposure
- First visit vs second visit
- Outcome
- Changes in mental health (PHQ-A, GAD-7, PedsQL-MFS, PSQI, B-IPQ, VAS-P) and associations with disease states (SLEDAI-2K, cLLDAS, cSLE remission)
- Follow-up
- 6-12 months
Methodological detailspaired assessments at two visits 6-12 months apart
- Paired assessments at two visits 6-12 months apart
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
Mental health measures, visit 1 vs visit 2
- Significant improvement in Patient Health Questionnaire-Adolescents (PHQ-A), Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7) and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) scores
- PedsQL Multidimensional Fatigue Scale (PedsQL-MFS), Brief Illness Perception Questionnaire (B-IPQ) and visual analogue scale for pain (VAS-P) scores remained unchanged
- Visit 1 vs Visit 2: P = 0.013
- Visit 1 vs Visit 2: P = 0.004
- Visit 1 vs Visit 2: P = 0.015
Observational data: associations, not effects.
Further findings
SLEDAI-2K scores, first vs second visit
- SLEDAI-2K scores were low, first vs second visit
- 2 (0, 4) vs 2 (0, 3)
Achieving childhood lupus low disease activity state (cLLDAS), first vs second visit
- Proportion achieving cLLDAS increased, first vs second visit
- 64.1% vs 72.6%, p=0.122
Achieving cSLE remission, first vs second visit
- Proportion achieving cSLE remission increased, first vs second visit
- 27.4% vs 35.9%, p=0.021
Psychological measures and SLEDAI-2K · second visit
- Active disease (SLEDAI-2K ≥5) associated with greater fatigue at the second visit
- P = 0.015
- No relationship between psychological measures and SLEDAI-2K
Psychological measures and cLLDAS or cSLE remission
- No associations with cLLDAS or cSLE remission, consistently in both visits
Parts of this Brief are withheld: the automatic checks could not confirm them against the abstract.
Original publication
Mental health monitoring in adolescents with SLE: associations with lupus low disease activity state and remission. Lupus Sci Med. Published 17 June 2026. doi:10.
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