I frequently receive donation requests from charities like St. Jude’s Hospital or American Cancer Society, sometimes featuring the picture of a child recovering from cancer. I can tell that they have gone through experiences that make them older than their years and just hope that the treatments that they are receiving are successful.
But it appears that even if they successfully battle cancer, they have other residual obstacles that may be in their paths.
According to a new study published in Pediatrics, childhood cancer survivors are four times more likely to develop PTSD then their healthy siblings.
Four times more likely.
Margaret Stuber, MD, and her colleagues at UCLA looked at 6,542 childhood cancer survivors who were diagnosed with cancer between 1970 and 1986. 368 siblings acted as the control group for this study.
From these individuals, 589 survivors (9%) and 8 siblings from the control group (2%) reported symptoms consistent with a PTSD diagnosis.
Other studies have previously looked at cancer survivors who were still children and they reported far less incident of PTSD (only 3%).
There are several possible reasons for these discrepancies.
For one, the earlier studies dealt with children who had received less invasive cancer treatments than those experienced by the survivors of Stuber’s study.
There is also the possibility that the added stress of adulthood (e.g. finding jobs, mortgage payments, trying to obtain health insurance, fill in the blank here) could be exacerbating trauma symptoms.
Most children are lucky enough not to have to undergo medical treatments that are as invasive as those experienced by cancer survivors.
But it is important to note that any medical treatment has the potential to be traumatizing to a child.
Do you want to know how we can help to decrease the amount of trauma our children experience?
Peter Levine, PhD is a frequent guest on our series. He is best known for his work with Somatic Experiencing, though he also provides ways to help us trauma-proof our children.
To learn more about Peter’s work, check out programs on trauma treatment here.
Please leave a comment below, sharing with others any experiences you have had treating children with trauma.
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Thanks…
Good post guys!
Oh, this is so hard topic. My heart bleeds each time I read about children who sufferers with cancer… how courage they are! I can’t imagine what their parents go through. I am a medical student and currently, I write a research paper about cancer (you can find more info here) I wish all the children to be healthy and happy! Thanks for the coverage of this tough topic!
great post, thanks for information
Hello ,
I’d like to share my experience at a Callanish cancer recovery retreat in British Columbia. Janie Brown has developed a mindfulness based model of treatment that is excellent. Eight clients/12 staff. The participants are in varying stages of cancer treatment. I was recently past surgery. The retreat was a week long process. We started every day with sitting practice, chi kung, and /or music with large gongs, chanting, or singing. Every morning was circle, check in, then a task focused on our disease and our current life…art, music, drumming, yukelele, writing, and movement were all introduced and skillfully used in a contemplative, mindfulness way. For example the writing reflected the Amherst writing model. The model was structured , and safe , yet very open so that every participant did their own work with the full support of the group and the staff.The afternoons offered individual sessions in massage, bodywork, counselling, art therapy,restorative yoga, nutrition counseling, or a medical consult. The staff cooked, cleaned, and listened. They joined the evening circle and closing check in.
My experience was one of being deeply held in loving kindness by women who simply put me first and themselves second, with deep dignity and respect for everyone, and the ability to role model staying calm and centered in the midst of loss, terror, anger, death and the unknown. Janie is trying to write about the process. i think she would make a great presenter here..to talk about the evolution of the program, and the lessons learned in holding compassionate environments for those in crisis, and in grief. Callanish is the circle stones on the Isle of lewis, a place where woman have practices healing meditation for centuries , I am told. Thanks for your forum Ruth. peace, Margaret
should update more often great read, also like the design of the page.
Two thoughts. One is the chemo and radiation don’t work for adults except in rare cases. The drug route does not lead to recovery but may prolong life by a short time. Many studies are showing that most diseases come from poor nutrition and lack of exercise, some say 70%. The pharmaceutical companies are trying to hide this fact. Nutritional supplementation is far cheaper than drug regulation which always has negative side effects.
Secondly, Gary Craig has done phenomenal work with using EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) for PTSD. He is retired now but there are others who are still finding results with EFT.
When we put our children on drugs at a very young age there is scientific evidence for showing the change in the person in numerous ways. Drugs should be a last resort, for only a short period of time, not a lifetime.
Again, it happened to me – I wrote a comment last night and inadvertently pushed the wrong button. Consequently, all of a sudden, whoosh, it was all gone and I gave up for then. It was on my agenda to write a comment on this today before the seminar, so here is a different version of my comment as I relate to the above paragraphs today.
Certainly, it is important to realize that there are effects (emotional, traumatic ones) of any procedure on an organism. Learning that an injury can happen when it occurs even ‘injures’ a child who never has been hurt – it’s an insult to its integrity, its sense of well-being, safety, survival. Of note is that my dissertation is on early narcissistic injury and its effects in later life. The results showed that persons (in this case more than 300 students at the University of Missouri-Columbia were examined) with early narcissistic (injuries to the self) experienced increased anger and underlying fears due to those experiences.
The younger and the less experienced a person is, the more difficult it is to put overwhelmingly painful experiences of any sort (including cancer) into context because it cannot be explained and put into perspective for a young child. No doubt, adult cancer survivors probably have a higher incidence of PTSD also. It would be even more complicated with children. We suffer, as a society, from certain beliefs that allow us to treasure myths among which are that we believe that it’s unjust that a child gets ill, maimed, dies without really having lived, caused its illness/demise. This does not fit into the stereotype (wish?) we have formed that people suffer and die because they’ve done something detrimental to themselves (researchers vie to find ’causes’ for illnesses, be they genetic, environmental, or vices such as smoking). Certainly it is inexplicably sad that young people die, or have to go through treatments that are difficult – without ever having lived in a carefree, supportive, safe, healthy manner. One of my granddaughters had a birth defect that caused several operations early in life beginning right after birth, and ultimately the loss of one kidney with the other only functional at 80%. My mother died of cancer at only 47 years of age after a three year battle while the only caretaker at home being my teen-aged sister also suffered emotionally later due to that experience, (my observation). When my sister was threatened with loss of support (after a divorce, when her own security was threatened again) her condition of loss, hopelessness, helplessness that caused PTSD (my belief engendered earlier while caring for our mother) she could not rally enough hope to recover. With her, smattering of psychological assistance was unsuccessful due to the need for a diagnosis which she chose to not accept.
So, the cancer survivors (young children) certainly, especially since they cannot conceptualize, cannot fully understand why this is happening to them, why they have to go through such treatments, would be traumatized to a greater degree than more mature children and adults who might be able to deal with their dire circumstances with a greater amount of coping skills and awareness. In my opinion, later in life, some of the emotional difficulties due to a childhood battle with cancer would be increased feelings of dependence on others when challenges are presented where skills deficits exist (as mentioned above) when those survivors grow up. I would surmise that some other effects that could/would be easily accessed due to previously (as a child) experienced and now possibly somewhat conditioned feelings would be those of helplessness, hopelessness, loss of control over ability to survive, feeling incapable of coping adequately. In addition, body memories can re-surface when under stress later on including pain as was previously experienced due to violation of body integrity via surgery or surgeries or procedures (chemo-and/or radiation therapies). Again, I believe this to be due to having faced these types of feelings and emotions when first exposed to very necessary cancer treatments. In addition, I also believe that an illness caused by an injury is more understood and acceptable in a child’s mind than the body “out of the blue” for no reason causing such a difficult life threatening experience. The latter is as if the body itself is the problem, turning onto itself…without an outside cause having that happen.
Yesterday what I mostly wrote about is that when younger children have to undergo such difficult situations there might be prevention steps to diminish the possibility of PTSD to occur later. One can make a ‘history of treatment book’ and take pictures of the different procedures, what was done, different stages of treatment, and/or procedures that helped treat the disease effectively, which might help. Of course, when the course of the illness ends with death, later processing of the situation except for parents to allow them to revisit the fact that everything possible was done to save their child, is moot. However, if the child survives, learning how s/he was able to meet the experience, with help, successfully, can possibly go a long way towards instilling hope, faith in one’s strength to survive, and the trust in someone (others) who can help us somehow. We all need when we have to face overwhelming situations of disappointments, misfortunes that leave us feeling destitute and utterly helpless someone/something to hold on to to rally our energies to get ourselves past that hopefully temporary set-back.
I am so glad that you are addressing the long-term impact that medical procedures can have on children. I worked as an emergency medical technician in an ER and on an Ambulance. I know that we had to do many intrusive things to save peoples lives. However, I feel that the growing body of neuroscientific evidence is showing us that even when we have to do these procedures they can be traumatic to the person experiencing them. For years I have been sharing in my cousenling practice how other things besides abuse can leave traumatic scars that don’t ressurect themselves until years later. By then it is difficult for people to relate that a medical procedure years ago could impact them now. I especially see this in young children who may have had to undergo life saving procedures due to pre and peri natial difficulties. Later when they enter head start or prek and they have trauma reactive behaviors they are perceived as diffiuclt children in need of more discipline or punishment went that is not the case. What I have found is that they are more stress sensistive and easily aroused into the primitive fight, flight and freeze amygdala. When parents and teachers understand this then they look at the behavior rather than a discipline issue but a regulatory problem and the child needs more adult assistance. When adults create more regulation and comfort for the child repetively they create the opportunity for the child’s regualtory systems to reset to a calmer less reactive place. The most difficulty I have found in helping parents and teachers with this is for them to move beyond the old paradigm thinking about child behavior as an attempt to manipulate the adults and shift to the new love-based paradigm of looking at the behavior as communication of a dysregulated child in need of adult regulation. Without adult regulation how will a child learn to self regulate? thanks