Posttraumatic stress disorder in mothers of children who have undergone surgery for congenital disease at a pediatric surgery department.
OBJECTIVE
The aim of the study was to investigate posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in mothers of children who have undergone surgery for congenital disease at a pediatric surgery department.


METHODS
A questionnaire survey was carried out in 145 mothers of children who had undergone surgery and were still alive. For comparison, the mothers were categorized into 3 groups according to the severity of their child's disease.


RESULTS
Of the 145 mothers, 29 (20%) were likely to be diagnosed as having developed PTSD at the time of the survey. Posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms correlated with factors such as anxiety and condition of the child. In terms of the disease severity of the child, factors such as anxiety tended to be observed more frequently in the higher disease severity group, whereas the proportion of mothers likely to be diagnosed as having developed PTSD was smallest in the moderate-severity group.


CONCLUSIONS
Twenty percent of the mothers of children had probably developed PTSD. In the moderate-severity group, there seemed to be a factor that alleviated PTSD symptoms. Because mothers provided effective care for the symptoms of children in the moderate-severity group, this observation suggests that participation of the mother in their child's treatment might prevent them from developing PTSD symptoms.
Nagata
Shin-ichi
S
Department of Psychiatry, Graduate School of Medicine, Tohoku University, Miyagi-ken 980-8575, Japan. nagata.tohoku@gmail.com
Funakosi
Syunichi
S
Amae
Shintaro
S
Yoshida
Shigehiko
S
Ambo
Hideo
H
Kudo
Ako
A
Yokota
Ayano
A
Ueno
Takashi
T
Matsuoka
Hiroo
H
Hayashi
Yutaka
Y
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D001007:Anxiety / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D000013:Congenital Abnormalities / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000601:surgery*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007223:Infant; D007564:Japan / Q000453:epidemiology; D008016:Life Change Events; D008297:Male; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology*; D010372:Pediatrics / Q000379:methods; D011336:Probability; D011379:Prognosis; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D018570:Risk Assessment; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology* / Q000523:psychology; D013315:Stress, Psychological; D013514:Surgical Procedures, Operative; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires