The Course of Posttraumatic Stress in Children: Examination of Symptom Trajectories and Predictive Factors Following Admission to Pediatric Intensive Care*

Conclusions: Children with elevated trauma symptoms postintensive care need timely and effective intervention. The majority of children with high levels of acute symptoms will continue to have chronic, ongoing posttraumatic stress symptoms. In addition, acute maternal distress and preexisting internalizing child behavior predict ongoing psychologic distress after discharge from the PICU. Screening in the acute period post-PICU admission may identify children likely to experience ongoing chronic posttraumatic distress symptoms and enable targeted treatment of children at risk. This is the first study to examine symptom trajectories in children following pediatric intensive care admission and includes a sample of very young children.
Source: Pediatric Critical Care Medicine - Category: Pediatrics Tags: Online Clinical Investigations Source Type: research