Pediatric Transplants Stressful for Parents, Too

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Reported June 27, 2003

Pediatric Transplants Stressful for Parents, Too

(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Organ transplantation is now the treatment of

choice for a number of serious medical conditions that today’s children

face. While the experience is, no doubt, stressful for the young children

who undergo transplantation, a new study shows it can be equally, if not

more stressful for the parents or caregivers of those children.

The dawn of new medications in recent years has greatly improved survival

rates in pediatric organ transplant patients. While safer, more effective

transplantation may alleviate the threat of some end-stage diseases, it

can often induce a new threat to the emotional health and social

functioning of the families of transplant recipients.

In this study, researchers from the University of California, Los

Angeles, studied 170 parents and/or primary caregivers of recent

pediatric transplant recipients to determine how they responded

emotionally and psychosocially to the experience.

Based on interviews conducted between 10 months and 38 months from the

time of the initial organ transplant, researches found that parents

maintained relatively normal levels of depression and anxiety when

compared with control groups. They did, however, report more severe

symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Results show more than half of the parents of pediatric transplant

recipients reported moderate to severe symptoms of PTSD with the most

severe symptoms reported being that of avoidance. Researchers define

avoidance as “feeling distant or cut off from people around you†or

“feeling as if your future plans or hopes will not come true.â€

Researchers report a significant correlation between the presence of PTSD

and elevated levels of depression. Because depression was not shown to

increase in parents as a result of pediatric transplantation, researchers

speculate that the presence of depression may increase the risk of

developing PTSD.

Parents who described their child’s health as “poor†were much more

likely to suffer from severe PTSD symptoms. Parents who perceived the

transplant as a negative experience for their family and social

functioning or reported fewer perceived benefits relative to the family

generally reported more severe PTSD symptoms.

Researchers say, “Assessment of parental perceptions of helplessness and

fear before and after the transplant surgery may be useful in targeting

preventive interventions for parents.â€

This article was reported by Ivanhoe.com, who offers Medical Alerts by

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SOURCE: Pediatrics, 2003;111:e725-e731

Becki

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