Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Among Mothers of Pediatric Cancer Survivors: Diagnosis, Comorbidity, and Utility of the PTSD Checklist as a Screening Instrument

Abstract

The PCL-C had diagnostic utility in screening mothers of childhood cancer survivors. The presence of comorbid diagnoses such as anxiety and depression should be examined.

Parent distress in childhood cancer: A comparative evaluation of posttraumatic stress symptoms, depression and anxiety

“…Frequent cognitive intrusions and less frequent avoidance and hyperarousal is in line with the reports from previous studies [14,25], and suggest that intrusions among parents of children with cancer may not always reflect full-blown posttraumatic symptomatology. Phipps and colleagues (2005) raise the notion that there is indeed little evidence that stress-response symptoms in relation to childhood cancer are truly ''post-traumatic''.…”

Allostatic Load in Women With and Without PTSD Symptoms

“…Parents also experience multiple discrete traumatic events common to cancer treatment, beginning with their child's diagnosis, and followed by bone marrow aspirations, spinal taps, transplants, surgery and other fear-provoking procedures associated with treatment (Stuber, Kazak, Meeske and Barakat 1998). Some parents will develop clinically significant PTSD symptoms following their child's diagnosis and treatment including hallmark PTSD symptoms of re-experiencing (e.g., flashbacks of worst moments), emotional numbing and avoidance, and hyperarousal (Brown, Madan-Swain and Lambert 2003;Glover and Stuber 2005b;Kazak et al 1997;Manne, Du, Gallelli, Sorgen and Redd 1998;Pelcovitz et al 1996).…”

“…Although a full discussion of the PTSD diagnostic controversy is beyond the scope of this article, data show that a proportion of mothers of children diagnosed with cancer meet all current diagnostic criteria for PTSD, as assessed by research instrument (Brown, MadanSwain, and Lambert 2003;Glover and Stuber 2005b;Kazak et al 1997) and by full clinical interviews (Manne, Du, Gallelli, Sorgen and Redd 1998;Pelcovitz et al 1996). Furthermore, these mothers show physiological dysregulation similar to that seen in other PTSD samples, including differences in cortisol and norepinephrine (Glover and Poland 2002), dopamine (Glover et al 2003) and immune system parameters at rest and under psychological challenge (Glover, Steele, Stuber and Fahey 2005).…”

Chronic psychological stress and the regulation of pro-inflammatory cytokines: A glucocorticoid-resistance model.

“…More than 6% met full Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed. ; American Psychiatric Association, 1994) criteria for this disorder (Manne, Du Hamel, Gullelli, Sorgen, & Redd, 1998). We expected that parents of cancer patients would show a decline in immune system glucocorticoid sensitivity compared with demographically matched parents of medically healthy children.…”