Pilot Evaluation of the Impact of Structured Child-Centered Interventions on Psychiatric Symptom Profile of Parents with Serious Somatic Illness: Struggle for Life Trial

Abstract

This is a trial of cancer patients who are seriously somatically ill and of how their distress affects their spouse or children. In the pilot phase the authors examined whether there are changes in psychiatric symptom profile of seriously somatically ill and healthy parents between assessments concerning a situation before the onset of parental illness, in current situation before intervention and 4 months after the intervention. The study is a family cluster, randomized, controlled treatment trial for parents and children in families with a parent who has a serious somatic illness. Global Severity Index (GSI) and psychiatric symptom profile of parents was assessed with the Symptoms Checklist-90 for adults. At pilot evaluation phase of the Struggle for Life trial, a total of 19 families (16 patients, 15 spouses) participated in the baseline assessment conducted before intervention, and 10 families (seven patients, seven spouses) also at the 4-month follow-up after the intervention. The interventions used in this study were the short Let's Talk about Children including two meetings with parents and more intensive Family Talk Intervention consisting of six to eight meetings with parents, children, and whole family. At the 4-month follow-up the GSI score of the patients and spouses was significantly decreased compared to the baseline score. At the baseline the GSI score of the patients was at the same level as that of the psychiatric outpatient sample, whereas at the 4-month follow-up it was at the same level as in the general population. This study lends support to previous studies that recommend that treatment practice should include structured interventions with parents concerning parenting and the wellbeing of children.

The Unsteady Mainstay of the Family: Now Adult Children’s Retrospective View on Social Support in Relation to Their Parent’s Heart Transplantation

“…In a previous study, children, parents, and health professionals reported that interventions had several positive impacts on children's and parents' psychosocial well-being [31]. Work is underway to transfer well-established family intervention programs from psychiatric to somatic care [32], the need for which is confirmed by this study.…”

Psychosocial Interventions for Parents with Incurable End‐Stage Cancer: A Rapid Evidence Assessment

“…The quality of studies varied from weak to strong. All of the studies were developed and delivered in Europe: Norway (Bugge et al, ), Denmark and Germany (Thastum et al, ), Finland (Niemelä, Repo, Wahlberg, Hakko, & Räsänen, ), and France (Landry‐Dattée et al, ). There were two qualitative studies with no control group (Bugge et al, ; Landry‐Dattée et al, ): a quantitative randomised controlled trial (Niemelä et al, ) and a semi‐controlled mixed methods design study (Thastum et al, ).…”

“…All of the studies were developed and delivered in Europe: Norway (Bugge et al, ), Denmark and Germany (Thastum et al, ), Finland (Niemelä, Repo, Wahlberg, Hakko, & Räsänen, ), and France (Landry‐Dattée et al, ). There were two qualitative studies with no control group (Bugge et al, ; Landry‐Dattée et al, ): a quantitative randomised controlled trial (Niemelä et al, ) and a semi‐controlled mixed methods design study (Thastum et al, ). One of the studies focused exclusively on parents with end‐stage cancer (Bugge et al, ) and the remaining three studies included—but was not limited to—parents with end‐stage cancer (Landry‐Dattée et al, ; Niemelä et al, ; Thastum et al, ).…”

The Forgotten Ones: Challenges and Needs of Children Living with Disabling Parental Chronic Pain

“…Clinical trials of innovative interventions with children living with parental illness have targeted those living with parental psychiatric illnesses (Beardslee et al, 1997) and parental terminal illness (Niemela, Repo, Wahlberg, Hakko, & Rasanen, 2013). To date, there is no research examining the effects of evidence-based interventions on reducing negative outcomes (e.g., internalizing and externalizing symptoms) and promoting development of strengths and competencies in children living with parental CNCP.…”