Abstract
Objective To study posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in parents after unexpected pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) treatment of their child and to identify risk factors for its development. Method Parents completed PTSD questionnaires 3 and 9 months (N = 190) after PICU treatment. Risk factors included pretrauma data, medical data, social demographics and posttraumatic stress responses at 3 months. Results In total, 30.3% of parents met criteria for subclinical PTSD and 12.6% for clinical PTSD at 3 months. Clinical PTSD prevalence rates did not change over time. At 9 months, 10.5% of parents still met criteria for PTSD. Number of earlier stressful life events, earlier psychosocial care and posttraumatic stress responses at 3 months predicted persistent subclinical and clinical PTSD. Conclusions PICU admission is a stressful event associated with persistent parental PTSD. Assessment of risk factors can facilitate detection of persistent PTSD for early intervention
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 966-974 |
Number of pages | 9 |
Journal | Journal of pediatric psychology |
Volume | 35 |
Issue number | 9 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2010 |