Emotional Implications of Tonsillectomy and Adenoidectomy on Children

Reduction of anxiety in children facing hospitalization and surgery by use of filmed modeling.

“…The need for such preparation is predicted on the belief that hospitalization and surgery are stressful and anxiety-producing experiences that can lead to transient or long-term psychological disturbances in most children. A number of behavior problems have been observed in children who have been hospitalized for surgery (Chapman,Loeb,& Gibbons,19S6;Gellert,19S8) with estimates for the incidence of these problems ranging from 10% to 35% (Jessner, Blom, & Waldfogel, 1952;Prugh, Staub, Sands, Kirschbaum, & Lenihan, 1953;Schaffer & Callender, 1959). Cassell (1965) reported slight psychological upset in as many as 92% of the hospitalized children studied.…”

Childhood, health, and illness: Beliefs and behaviors of Urban American schoolchildren

“…Attention has been devoted primarily to psychological and emotional responses to disease and medical procedures (Jessner et al 1952;Pearson 1941;Prugh et al 1953;Vernon et al 1965), or to stages of cognitive development that influence understanding of health, disease, bodily functions, and death (Bibace andWalsh 1980, 1981;Perrin and Gerrity 1981). Bluebond-Langner's (1978) ethnographic study of terminally ill leukemic children provided a rare glimpse of disease and death through children's eyes.…”

Pete the diesel: Psychotherapy with a severely disturbed five-year-old boy

“…The literature on the psychological implications for children of hospitalisation and surgery describes fears of abandonment, punishment, mutilation, disfigurement and pre-occupation with fantasies of violence and death (Becker, 1972;Bergman & Freud, 1965;Conway, 1975;Erikson, 1972;Jessner, Blom & Waldfogel, 1952). Children with cleft palate and lip experience surgery in their first year of life with follow-up surgery as they develop (Grabb, Rosenstein & Bzoch, 1971;Holdsworth, 1970).…”