Appraisal of life threat and acute trauma responses in pediatric bone marrow transplant patients

✍ Scribed by Margaret L. Stuber; Kathleen O. Nader; Beth M. Houskamp; Robert S. Pynoos

• Publisher: Springer
• Year: 1996
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 810 KB
• Volume: 9
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0894-9867
• DOI: 10.1002/jts.2490090402

✦ Synopsis

Although traumatic responses in children are well-documented following exposure to a variety of life-threatening circumstances, little is known about the subjective appraisal of children during the acute exposure. This paper presents both descriptive and quantifiable data regarding the responses of children during the acute phase of hospitalization for bone marrow transplantation, an ertremely aggressive treatment for otherwise fatal illnesses. Children were able to appreciate the life-threatening nature of their illness and its treatment. Thqy reported few symptom consistent with a traumatic stress response. These findings are in contrast to recent data on survivors of childhood cancer, who generally report that they did not understand that their illness posed a threat to their lives, while reporting moderate levels of posttraumatic stress symptoms up to 10 years aper completion of successful treatment. Implications of these findings are dbcussed.

KEY WORDS

posttraumatic stress disorder. bone marrow transplant; life threat; trauma; pediatric. Recent studies have made significant contributions to our understanding of the ways in which children respond to threats to their lives or body integrity. The relationship of traumatic exposure to severity of symptoms has been demonstrated in children exposed to sniper fire (Nader, Pynoos, Fairbanks, &