Self- and Parent-Reported Psychological Symptoms in Young Cancer Survivors and Control Peers: Results from a Clinical Center

Abstract

Pediatric cancer survivors are at increased risk for psychological distress. We sought to understand the severity and symptoms’ co-occurrence among pediatric survivors compared to controls by rating both self- and parent-reported symptomatology. Forty survivors (22 males; mean age at study time: 12.9 years) participated in the study. Most survivors (85%) had a diagnosis of acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Seventy-nine healthy controls with the same age and gender distribution as the patients were included. A standardized assessment of psychological functioning was conducted by self- and parent-reported symptoms evaluations. The self-reported anxious symptom severity was significantly higher in survivors. A significantly higher proportion of survivors compared to controls had clinically significant anxiety, depression, and combined anxiety symptoms (i.e., social anxiety, separation anxiety, or physical symptoms). In both study groups, the self-reported emotional and somatic symptoms were significantly associated. The multi-informant assessments of the psychological symptoms revealed distinct associations between the child- and parent-reported symptoms in the survivors’ group: the survivors’ self-reports of depressive symptoms, somatic symptoms, and functional impairment were significantly correlated with the parent reports of child behavioral concerns, somatic complaints, and functional impairment, respectively. Conclusion: Self-reported symptoms showed similar comorbidity profiles in survivors and control peers. The multi-informant assessments detected differences in the association of self- and parent-reported symptoms between the survivor and control groups. The present study showed that multi-informant assessment is critical to understanding symptom profiles and to informing intervention with particular regard to parental participation and support.

Applying a hierarchical clustering on principal components approach to identify different patterns of the SARS-CoV-2 epidemic across Italian regions

“…Looking at the data, Veneto conducted a wider testing campaign (approximately 44 tests per 1000 residents) if compared with Emilia-Romagna and Piedmont (24 tests per 1000 residents and 17 tests per 1000 residents, respectively) 2 . If on the one hand performing an insufficient number of tests underestimates the transmission rate and distorts the statistics 17 , 18 , on the other hand combining the restrictions with widespread testing may have contributed to a more rapid resolution of the epidemic in Veneto 8 .…”

“…Our study has some limitations to be considered. First, it does not take into the proportion of undocumented events, which might differently affect some indicators 18 , 19 . Our approach, furthermore, considers only a part of the availability of medical care resources, indicated in terms of ICU beds.…”

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“…They were prone to insecurities. In addition, with the caregivers' love and compassion for the children, many children had strong attachment emotions, and more of them manifested separation anxiety [13]. It was di cult for children to produce joyful emotions, which also affected learning and development in other elds.…”

The Role of Music Therapy for Children Undergoing Cancer Treatment in Singapore

“…Some other ways that children may be psychologically affected are worrying about the future, their appearances, and feeling different from their peers [ 10 ]. Survivors of childhood cancer have also been found to be at risk of psychological late effects and neurocognitive deficits i.e., attention, verbal and working memory, and processing speed [ 12 ].…”