Anxiety-phobic disorders are caused both by environmental and hereditary factors. The study was designed to determine the level of chromosomal aberrations in the peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL) of children and adolescents of both sexes with phobic-anxiety disorders (PAD).

Cytogenetic analysis was performed in 27 children and adolescents of both sexes with PAD, aged 9–15 years; the control group consisted of 50 healthy peers of both genders. Statistical analysis-Excel and SPSS statistics 17.0.

Cytogenetic analysis of patients with PAD and in healthy age-matched individuals has established normal female (46,XX) and male (46,XY) karyotypes. The frequency of the chromosomal aberrations (CA) spontaneous level in the PBL is 4.6 times higher than the CA frequency in healthy persons. In children and adolescents with the disease, the spontaneous frequency of aberrations of chromatid and chromosome types is also significantly higher than the same in healthy children and adolescents. Single acentric fragments and exchanges prevail among the chromatid–type aberrations; pair acentric fragments prevail among the chromosome–type aberrations. An increase in the frequency of the chromosome-type aberrations has been revealed in boys with PAD (1.72 vs.0.55 per100 cells in healthy boys, P < 0.001 by pair acentric fragments), in comparison with healthy boys; and the chromatid–type aberrations have been observed in girls with PAD (3.22 vs.0.94 per 100 cells in healthy girls, P < 0.001 by single acentric fragments), in comparison with healthy girls. A pronounced individual variability of CA frequency, which ranges in our patients from 2.0 to18.0 per 100 metaphase plates, has been found along with an increase in the CA level in patients with PAD.

Children and adolescents with PAD require a careful cytogenetic analysis and the consequent therapeutic measures for genome stabilization.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.