Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Four Times More Likely to Be Developed by Persons Surviving Childhood Cancers

Young adults who survived childhood cancers are four times more exposed to developing PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder) than other persons, according to a Childhood Cnacer Survivors Study.
The study was focused on 6,543 survivors of childhood cancer, all of them over 18, who were diagnosed with different forms of cancer between 1970 and 1986. 368 of their siblings were referred to as a control group. The study revealed that 589 survivors, i.e. 9 percent, reported functional damage, clinical distress and symptoms consistent with PTSD diagnosis. Compared to this group, only 8 siblings, i.e. 2 percent, reported the same symptoms. The study is published in the latest issue of the journal Pediatrics.
Dr. Margaret Stuber, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, researcher at Jonsson Cancer Center and first author of the study, declared that childhood cancer survivors, like any other person with PTSD, have been exposed to events that made them frighten or feel helpless or horrified. In her opinion, the study plainly demonstrates that some of these survivors experience intense suffering many years after their successful treatment. Development of PTSD can be really crippling for childhood cancer survivors. The disease is treatable and, as a consequence, patients do not have to live with it.
Survivors affected by this disease often report symptoms keeping them from normal functioning, such as phobias, avoidance of reminders of their cancer history, extreme anxiety, feelings like being on edge, being hyper vigilant, startling easily and increased arousal.
As Stuber said, other studies having tried to look for PTSD in childhood cancer survivors while still children or adolescents only found 3 percent reporting this kind of symptoms.
Several reasons are explaining this discrepancy. Treatment regimens popular today use less toxic medication and whole head radiation for brain tumors and therefore cause far less trauma to young patients. As a conclusion, improved supportive care patients enjoy today may cause fewer physical and cognitive late effects than before.
Stuber’s study reveals that survivors of childhood cancer often were subject to unpleasant regimens used in the 1970s and 1980s. Those that underwent more damaging and toxic therapies reported more cases of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.
Another important reason that more patients reported PTSD symptoms is the stressful situations they had to face, considering their age, like finding a job or getting married and starting a family. As Stuber outlined, the stress is an important factor that can exacerbate the PTSD.
The study concludes that incriminated symptoms, functional impairment and clinical distress affect the more vulnerable survivors of childhood cancer, as they have to face multiple tasks of young adulthood as well as many challenges of the late effects of their cancer treatment, as the study reveals.
The protection of the parental home is important but is diminished as survivors of childhood cancer have to face challenges such as completing their education, finding an appropriate job, getting a health insurance, establishing intimate relationships, getting married and starting a family.
Harsh therapies underwent by many patients induce significant late effects like infertility, stunted growth or cognitive impairment. All these are supposed to add to stress level. People suffering from cognitive impairment, for example, may find impossible to go to college or get a good job in order to earn an adequate income.
The same patients may not get a health insurance. They also may have difficulties in getting married because they are sterile. On the other hand, those who can have children may be afraid of transmitting their “bad genes” onto their children. Growth may also be affected by these treatments; therefore some survivors may be heavier or shorter than their peers. They could feel like being damaged machines.
Stuber said that therapy and medication are available for the survivors in order to make them able to manage their symptoms, but the issue is not simple at all to solve.
After more intense treatment, people are more likely to have this kind of symptoms, as their treatment produced more traumas. As more damage was done, their bodies are affected and they may find more difficult to have a normal life later.
The study was funded by The National Cancer Institute and looked at children with all forms of cancer.