Posttraumatic stress symptoms after childhood cancer

Abstract

The posttraumatic stress model has recently been applied to understand the impact of life-threatening illness in adults and in children. From 1991 to 2001, 20 studies have reported posttraumatic stress symptoms and/or posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in childhood cancer survivors and/or their parents. A review of these studies is proposed. Prevalence of posttraumatic stress symptoms and/or PTSD in children and in their parents has been estimated, across studies, between 2 and 20 % in survivors and between 10 and 30 % in their parents, even many years after the end of cancer treatment. Time elapsed since the diagnosis of cancer is usually not predictive of persistent symptoms. Subjective appraisal of life threat and illness beliefs are more important predictors than objective medical data. The presence of symptoms in survivors is not always related to that in their parents. The posttraumatic stress model renews the approach and understanding of psychopathological reactions of children with cancer, regarding trauma features and the role of parental responses. This model has important implications for individual and family clinical interventions. A reflection on the disruption of family functioning by childhood cancer (an example being bone marrow transplantation with a related donor) and on the recovery processes is needed.

Factors related to posttraumatic stress in adolescent survivors of childhood cancer and their parents

“…Previous research has revealed that the prevalence of clinically significant levels of PTSD and/or posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) in survivors ranged from 2 to 20%, and young adult survivors tended to show higher levels of posttraumatic stress [27]. Cancer affects not only patients but also entire families.…”

“…Cancer affects not only patients but also entire families. In cases of childhood cancer, 10-30% of parents of survivors showed symptoms of posttraumatic stress [27]. Several factors may predict PTSS, including the individual's general level of anxiety [9,13], medical factors, posttreatment factors, maternal psychological vulnerability [17], family functioning, and social support [12,21].…”

Posttraumatic stress disorder in children affected by sickle‐cell disease and their parents

“…PTSD is described in patients having experienced or witnessed an event that involved actual or threatened death or serious injury, or a threat to physical integrity of self or others, and presenting a significant number of symptoms in each of these categories: reexperiencing, avoidance/ numbing, and increased arousal [5]. PTSD has been reported in childhood cancer survivors and/or their parents [6], never in SCD children, and once in a SCD adult [7]. We aimed to determine whether children affected with SCD and/or their parents could present PTSD, and to look for associated medical, psychological or social factors.…”

Anxiety, depressive, and posttraumatic stress symptoms in mothers of children with type 1 diabetes

“…E-mail: antje.horsch@hmc.ox.ac.uk. DuHamel, Gallelli, Sorgen, & Redd, 1998;Manne, DuHamel, & Redd, 2000;Pelcovitz et al, 1996;Taieb, Moro, Baubet, Revah-Levy, & Flament, 2003), severe burn injuries (Fukumishi, 1998;Rizzone, Stoddard, Murphy, & Kruger, 1994), spinal cord injury (Boyer, Knolls, Kafkalas, Tollen, & Schwartz, 2000), bone marrow transplantation (Heiney, Neuberg, Myers, & Bergman, 1994;Manne et al, 2002), organ transplantation (Young et al, 2003), hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (Manne et al, 2004), traffic-related injuries (de Vries et al, 1999;Winston et al, 2002;Winston, Kassam-Adams, GarciaEspana, Ittenbach, & Cnaan, 2003), meningococcal disease (Shears, Nadel, Gledhill, & Garralda, 2005), and admission to the pediatric intensive care unit (Balluffi et al, 2004). Furthermore, Landolt, Vollrath, Ribi, Gnehm, and Sennhauser (2003) showed that the severity of parental PTSD symptoms was higher in parents of children who had recently been diagnosed with a chronic illness than in parents of children who had recently been involved in an accident.…”