Prevalence of pediatric medical traumatic stress in children with cancer and their parents

Pediatric medical traumatic stress (PMTS) is a set of children’s and their parents’ psychological and physiological responses to pain, injury, serious illnesses, and other experiences with the medical environment. Pediatric cancer patients have the highest prevalence of PMTS as the illness involves a set of stressors that trigger many negative psychological reactions. We examined the incidence of PMTS in children with cancer and their parents due to coping with a serious illness and treatment complications. We analysed the prevalence of PMTS in children with cancer and their parents due to gender, cancer type, duration of treatment, intensity of treatment and hospitalization in intensive care unit. The study involved 183 parents of 133 children and 62 children and adolescents who were treated between 2009 and 2019 at Clinical Department of Pediatric Hematology and Oncology of University Children’s Hospital in Ljubljana. We collected the data using The Intensity of treatment rating scale 2.0 (IRT-2), PTSD checklist for Children/Parent (PCL-C/PR), The PTSD Checklist for DSM-5 (PCL-5) and The Child PTSD Symptoms Scale for DSM-5 (CPSS-5). PMTS is frequently present in both, children and their parents. Our findings will contribute to the systematic prevention of PMTS and endeavor to use trauma-informed care.