Prevalence of Symptoms of Anxiety, Depression, and Post-traumatic Stress Disorder in Parents and Children Following Pediatric Stroke

Abstract

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety, and depression are seen in parents and children following critical illness. Whether this exists in parents and children following pediatric stroke has not been thoroughly studied. We examined emotional outcomes in 54 mothers, 27 fathers, and 17 children with stroke. Parents of children 0-18 years and children 7-18 years who were within 2 years of stroke occurrence were asked to complete questionnaires to determine their emotional outcomes. Of participating mothers, 28% reported PTSD, 26% depression, and 4% anxiety; in fathers, 15% reported PTSD, 24% depression, and none reported anxiety. Further, children reported significant emotional difficulty, with 24% having depression, 14% anxiety, and 6% PTSD by self-report ratings. Maternal PTSD, anxiety and depression, and paternal anxiety were all negatively associated with the child’s functional outcome. Clinically significant anxiety (based on clinical thresholds) was not found in fathers; however, continuous scores were still analyzed for association between subclinical anxiety and functional outcome, which revealed a statistically significant association between more reported symptoms and higher Recovery and Recurrence Questionnaire scores. Prevalence of PTSD and depression are greater in parents compared to the general population in this preliminary study.

PTSD in parents of children with severe diseases: a systematic review to face Covid-19 impact

“…Two studies specifically involved younger children, with a mean age of 1.58 years [ 35 ] and around one year old [ 36 ]. The other two studies involved parents whose children presented the event at a mean age of 4.9 years [ 37 ] and children followed by paediatricians at any age (0–18 years) [ 38 ].…”

“…Two studies collected data from 6 months to one year after the diagnosis/event of the child’s disease [ 35 , 36 ]; whereas one paper reported results collected at a mean time of 6.3 years after the event (Werner) [ 37 ], and another one showed data gathered generally a month after the diagnosis of the child’s disease, as required for DSM-5 PTSD diagnosis [ 38 ].…”

“…Noteworthy, two studies showed quite homogeneous results, with rates of PTSD ranging from 17 to 19.5% among mothers and from 8.1 to 9% among fathers [ 36 , 38 ], whereas the parents of patients who experienced a stroke showed a higher prevalence of PTSD (28% of mothers and 15% of fathers) [ 35 ]. Surprisingly, Werner et al [ 37 ] reported much lower rates, since only one mother and no fathers had a diagnosis of a PTSD related to the implantation of a cardiac rhythm device in their children.…”

“…One hypothesis would depend on the time between the traumatic clinical event and the parents’ PTSD assessment. Indeed, the study with the higher prevalence rates [ 35 ] has the shortest range of time since diagnosis (less than 1 year) and the study with very low rates [ 37 ] has a rather long time (almost 7 years) since diagnosis. It is possible that a period of 6.3 years offered sufficient time to recover and to develop resilience [ 7 , 43 , 44 ].…”

Novel Coronavirus Pandemic Impacts Children and Adolescents’ Psychological Well-Being in Heavily Hit Chinese Provinces

“…This relationship between children's self-rated total scores of psychological symptoms and the belief that their parents were anxious about the pandemic has not been reported before, nor was this trend reported during SARS. Though we cannot draw a definitive directional or causal conclusion between the two factors or know whether the children's perceptions were accurate, it is possible that father's anxiety about COVID-19 in children's eyes had more of an impact on children's depressive and anxious symptoms than that of their mothers because mothers are usually more sensitive and their emotions change more frequently than fathers' emotions [24,25], which could lead children to become desensitized to their mothers' emotions. In contrast, fathers usually do not visibly display anxiety [24,25], which could make children more likely to sense it in their fathers when it is displayed.…”