Looking Beyond the Physical Injury: Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in Children and Parents After Pediatric Traffic Injury

Abstract

PTSD in children and their parents is a common, yet overlooked, consequence of pediatric traffic-related injury with prevalence rates similar to those found in children exposed to violence. Physicians managing the pediatric trauma patient, regardless of injury severity or whether the injury was intentional, should screen for PTSD and refer for treatment where appropriate.

Young traffic victims' long-term health-related quality of life: Child self-reports and parental reports

“…Other studies on comparable populations of traffic-injured children (ie, children involved in the crash and presenting to the emergency department after road traffic crashes) describe substantial psychobehavioral sequelae, such as mood disturbances, anxiety and depressive symptoms, and, especially, posttraumatic stress disorders. [4][5][6][7]9,10 These studies, however, report on short-term outcomes up to 1 year after the crash. It is also important to realize that our study included a generic HRQOL assessment, and the above-mentioned studies used assessments that detect specific behavioral and psychologic symptoms.…”

“…However, it is only in the past decade that the nonfatal outcome of young traffic injury victims has been addressed in the international literature. [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10] Most of these studies [4][5][6][7][8][9][10] have focused on the psychologic effects and, mainly, on posttraumatic stress reactions. Despite this growing interest in the outcome of young traffic victims, the effects on the long-term health-related quality of life (HRQOL) have received little or no attention.…”

Parental Experiences of Supporting Children with Clinically Significant Post-Traumatic Distress: a Qualitative Study of Families Accessing Psychological Services

“…A significant number of children develop psychological adjustment difficulties such as post-traumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) following exposure to trauma (De Vries et al 1999;Meiser-Stedman et al 2006;Stallard et al 2004). Parents are often children's main source of support following a trauma and it is thought that parents' responses can reduce or exacerbate their child's vulnerability to PTSS (Scheering and Zeanah 2001).…”

“…Moreover, having a child experience a life-threatening event can have direct psychological consequences for the parent, even when they themselves were not directly exposed to the trauma, and parental posttraumatic distress is greater in cases where the child is more seriously impacted (Hiller et al 2016). Parental distress and PTSD symptoms have been found to be associated with poorer child adjustment following trauma exposure (Alisic et al 2011;De Vries et al 1999;Kelley et al 2010;Nugent et al 2007). Parental post-trauma distress stemming from child trauma exposure may cause parents to be less available to their child, lead to the promotion of maladaptive coping strategies, or cause parental difficulties in discussing the event which may obstruct child recovery (Nugent et al 2007;Schwartz et al 1994) The limited available evidence suggests that only a small minority of children with PTSD access treatment (De Vries et al 1999), and parents are likely to be an important determinant of this.…”

“…Parental distress and PTSD symptoms have been found to be associated with poorer child adjustment following trauma exposure (Alisic et al 2011;De Vries et al 1999;Kelley et al 2010;Nugent et al 2007). Parental post-trauma distress stemming from child trauma exposure may cause parents to be less available to their child, lead to the promotion of maladaptive coping strategies, or cause parental difficulties in discussing the event which may obstruct child recovery (Nugent et al 2007;Schwartz et al 1994) The limited available evidence suggests that only a small minority of children with PTSD access treatment (De Vries et al 1999), and parents are likely to be an important determinant of this. Moreover, parental involvement in child psychotherapy may not only influence drop-out rates but parents may also foster child adjustment by helping children to practice therapeutic coping strategies at home (Chowdhury and Pancha 2011;Cobham et al 2016;Schneider et al 2013).…”