The incidence, severity, and potential causative and contributory factors of significant psychological distress in pediatric cancer patients and survivors were investigated. The parents of 88 childhood cancer patients (n = 24) and survivors (n = 64) completed 2 independent measures of psychological functioning on their child. Patients were all between the ages of 6 and 16 years old and were accrued from a large variety of diagnostic and treatment conditions. In analyzing the determinants of psychological functioning, the following variables were investigated: dosage of cranial irradiation (CRT), intrathecal methotrexate, and systemic methotrexate; age; sex; socioeconomic status; age at diagnosis; months since both first and last treatment; being on or off treatment; intelligence; and if a central nervous system cancer had occurred. The overall incidence of psychological adjustment disturbances was relatively low (approximately 10% to 20%) and similar to that reported in the general population. The most common parent-reported problems were related to somatic concerns, anxiety symptoms, and cognitive disabilities. Being female, age at diagnosis, CRT, and nonverbal intelligence deficits were predictive of parent-reported cognitive impairment and socialization difficulties. No other consistent relation between the cancer and demographic variables and psychological dysfunction was noted.
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Butler et al. (1999) studied this question.
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