Parents of kids with cancer face traumatic stress

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.