QOL-02. Paediatric medical traumatic stress in children with cancer and their parents: Differences in levels of posttraumatic stress symptoms

Abstract

Paediatric medical traumatic stress (PMTS) is a set of children’s and their parents’ psychological and physiological responses to pain, injury, serious illnesses, and other experiences with the medical environment. Paediatric cancer patients have the highest prevalence of PMTS as the illness involves a set of stressors that trigger many negative psychological reactions. Posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) are one of the most common psychopathologies among cancer patients. We examined the incidence of PMTS in children with cancer and their parents due to coping with a serious illness and treatment complications. We analysed the following risk factors for PTSS: selected groups of individuals, medical interventions, complications, and treatment modalities. The study involved 183 parents of 133 children and 63 children and adolescents who were treated between 2009 and 2019 at Clinical Department of Paediatric Haematology and Oncology of Paediatric Clinic in Ljubljana. We collected the data using The Intensity of treatment rating scale 2.0 [IRT-2], PTSD checklist for Children/Parent [PCL-C/PR], The PTSD Checklist for DSM-5 [PCL-5] and The Child PTSD Symptoms Scale for DSM-5 [CPSS-5]. PMTS is frequently present in both, children and their parents, regardless of the cancer type, treatment duration, treatment outcome, and child’s age. Mothers, patients with relapse, patients who were diagnosed after age 5, patients with more intensive treatment, and parents of the latter are at higher risk for PMTS occurrence. Additionally, we found a decreasing trend of traumatic responses after five or more years post cancer diagnosis and that parents are more traumatized than children. Our findings will contribute to the systematic prevention of PMTS and medical trauma and to endeavour to use trauma-informed care.

The impact of parental overprotection on the emotions and behaviors of pediatric hematologic cancer patients: a multicenter cross-sectional study

“…In this study, the children’s TDSs were significantly higher than those of children in elementary and junior high schools in Japan and China ( Takeshima et al, 2021 ; Zhou et al, 2022 ). This result could be attributed to the fact that hematologic malignancies involve a series of stressors that may trigger negative psychological reactions ( Sandra et al, 2022 ), resulting in reported scores that are lower than those of healthy children. Additionally, the majority of participants in this study were children of preschool age, who are younger than those in elementary or junior high school.…”