Parents of kids with cancer face traumatic stress

	Tweet

Most parents of children undergoing cancer treatment report symptoms of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), according to a new report.

PTSD can arise when someone experiences intensely stressful events, and symptoms may include chronic anxiety, vivid flashbacks, and difficulties with sleeping and concentrating.

Dr. Anne E. Kazak and colleagues from Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and University of Pennsylvania used standardized scales to evaluate PTSD symptoms in 119 mothers and 52 fathers of 171 children being treated for a childhood cancer.

The average PTSD scores for mothers and fathers were within the range of moderate PTSD, the team reports in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. All but one parent reported symptoms consistent with at least mild PTSD.

More than two thirds of the mothers and over half of the fathers had PTSD within the moderate-to-severe range, the results indicate. In families in which both parents participated in the survey, 79 percent had at least one parent with moderate-to-severe PTSD.

“These data raise complex issues regarding the meaning of elevated PTSD symptoms during treatment,” the investigators write.

“Given the high rate of prevalence of PTSD symptoms, for example, it would be inappropriate to assume that PTSD symptoms indicate psychiatric impairment,” they advise. For many people, the symptoms are “part of the process of responding and reacting to one’s circumstances and may be adaptive in certain ways.”

Nonetheless, “Brief and efficacious treatments have been developed to assist parents in adjusting to their child’s diagnosis and treatment, and effective psychological treatments for posttraumatic disorders have been developed,” writes Dr. Sharon Manne from Fox Chase Cancer Center, Philadelphia, in a related editorial.

By helping parents “address their own psychological well-being,” Dr. Kazak and colleagues point out, “we may be best assuring that the psychological needs of the patients are also met.”

SOURCE: Journal of Clinical Oncology, October 20, 2005.

RELATED STORIES:
Brain cell migration during normal development may offer insight on how cancer cells spread   Cannabis ingredient can help cancer patients regain their appetites and sense of taste   Active lifestyle may prevent cancer: Japan study   Deactivating a cancer growth promoter   Considerable Proportion of Patients With Advanced Cancer Undergo Common Cancer Screening   Children’s Cancer Group Recommends Global Evaluation System for Neuroblastoma to Improve Treatment   Messages of Hope Work Better in Motivating Black Patients to Seek Early Screening for Cancer   Personality not linked to cancer risk or prognosis   New device could cut chemotherapy deaths   World Cancer Day Points to Prevention   Biomarker Test Shows Promise for Melanoma Diagnosis   Inhaled morphine eases cancer-related air hunger   Vitamin D deficiency common in cancer patients   How to talk about cancer with their children   Protein Raises Antibody Output   Cell Path Overdrive Prevents Cancer Response to Diet Restriction   Only five percent of cancer research funds are spent on metastases, yet it kills 90 percent of all cancer patients   Gold nanoparticles bring scientists closer to a treatment for cancer   Blocking “rogue gene” may stop cancer spread: study   Child’s cancer may not boost parents’ divorce risk   Genome study shows what cancers have in common   ‘Chemical Nose’ May Sniff Out Cancer Earlier

Comments

[ + Post Your Own ]

Now you're in the public comment zone. What follows is not Armenian Medical Network's stuff; it comes from other people and we don't vouch for it. A reminder: By using this Web site you agree to accept our Terms of Service. Click here to read the Rules of Engagement.

There are no comments for this entry yet. [ + Comment here + ]