Parents of children with cancer suffer post-traumatic stress

I can’t imagine what it’s like to be the relative of someone with cancer, but when they’re your child, it must be terribly stressful.

So it’s no surprise that a study by the Chidren’s Hospital in Philadelphia concludes that parents of children with cancer suffer with both immediate and lingering symptoms of post-traumatic stress.

The press release says:

“We have found, time and again, that we need to approach and treat these types of traumatic stress from a family perspective,” said study leader Anne E. Kazak, Ph.D., ABPP, director of Psychology and co-director of the Center for Pediatric Traumatic Stress at Children’s Hospital. “Our understanding of these traumatic stress responses should build on existing strengths in families, while being sensitive to parents at higher risk for stress symptoms that may interfere with their daily functioning.”

It describes the symptoms and triggers:

PTS symptoms include intrusive, unwanted thoughts; avoidance of stress-inducing settings and situations; and heightened arousal, such as sweating, dizziness or increased heart rate triggered by reminders of the original experience. Although PTS symptoms are not as severe as full-blown post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), they are closely related. In a previous study, the Children’s Hospital team found that 20 percent of families of adolescent survivors of childhood cancer had at least one parent with current PTSD.

Stressful events such as learning the child’s cancer diagnosis, seeing the child in pain, emergency hospitalizations, adverse effects of treatment, and deaths of other patients, may all contribute to a parent’s PTS symptoms.

Psychologists originally characterized PTSD among patients suffering the aftereffects of war or natural disasters. “Because cancer is a life-threatening experience,” said Dr. Kazak, “it too can inflict similar psychological effects.”

• Read the full press release: Parents of children with cancer suffer post-traumatic stress symptoms, both immediate and lingering
• Read Tips for parents of children with cancer
• Read Tips for families facing cancer