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Early Traumatic Stress Responses in Parents Following a Serious Illness in Their Child: A Systematic Review

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Abstract

A systematic review of the literature investigating the early traumatic stress responses in parents of children diagnosed with a serious illness/injury. A literature review was conducted (September 2013) using Medline, PsycINFO, and CINAHL databases. Twenty-four studies related to parents of children hospitalized due to diagnosis of cancer, type 1 diabetes, meningococcal disease, trauma or serious injury, preterm birth and other serious illnesses requiring admission to intensive care were included. Parents were assessed for early traumatic stress symptoms within 3 months of their child’s diagnosis/hospitalization. Prevalence rates of acute stress disorder in parents ranged from 12 to 63 %. Prevalence of posttraumatic stress disorder ranged from 8 to 68 %. Variability was related to methodological factors including differences in study design, timing of assessments, measurement tools, and scoring protocols. Psychosocial factors rather than medical factors predicted parent distress. This review integrates and compares early traumatic reactions in parents with children suffering a range of serious illnesses. Findings suggest a high prevalence of acute and posttraumatic stress symptoms in parents. Methodological inconsistencies made comparison of early traumatic stress prevalence rates difficult. Risk factors associated with traumatic stress symptoms were identified.

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References marked with an asterisk indicate studies included in the review

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Acknowledgement

The research project reported in this published work was conducted by the authors as part of their Masters in Psychology at the University of Melbourne, or employment with the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute, or The Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne, Australia. We acknowledge the funding support for this project from the Pratt Foundation and the Victorian Government’s Operational Infrastructure Support Program. None of these funders had any involvement in the planning, design or execution of this research, and neither played a role in drafting the manuscript. The authors have full control of all primary data and agree to allow the journal to review the data if requested.

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Correspondence to Maria C. McCarthy.

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Claudia Woolf, Frank Muscara, Vicki Anderson and Maria McCarthy all declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Human and Animal Rights and Informed Consent

All procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation of (Royal Children’s Hospital, HREC 30044) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000. Informed consent was obtained from all patients for being included in the study. No animal or human studies were carried out by the authors for this article.

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Woolf, C., Muscara, F., Anderson, V.A. et al. Early Traumatic Stress Responses in Parents Following a Serious Illness in Their Child: A Systematic Review. J Clin Psychol Med Settings 23, 53–66 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10880-015-9430-y

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