One-Year Follow-Up of Girls with Precocious Puberty and Their Mothers: Do Psychological Assessments Change over Time or with Treatment?

BACKGROUND: To determine whether psychological characteristics of girls with variations of early puberty and their mothers change over time and with treatment in girls with central precocious puberty (CPP).

METHODS: Girls with CPP, premature adrenarche (PA), and early normal puberty (ENP) completed psychological assessments at baseline and after 1 year along with their mothers. All girls with CPP were treated with GnRH analogs. Psychological effects of group and time were examined using 2 × 3 mixed ANOVAs.

RESULTS: Sixty-two subjects aged 7.5 ± 1.4 years (range 4.8-10.5) were enrolled, of whom 36 (15 with CPP, 8 with PA, and 13 with ENP) completed 1-year follow-up assessments. Psychological measures were normal in all girls. No significant group differences were found for any measure of girls' psychological functioning at either time point. However, across all groups there was change over time with a decrease in perceived physical competence (p < 0.001) and an increase in perceived maternal acceptance (p = 0.001).

CONCLUSION: No abnormalities in psychological functioning were found among girls with variations of early puberty, and all groups were in the normal range. Our results are largely reassuring regarding concerns of adverse psychological consequences of early puberty in girls.