Psychiatric aspects of pediatric cancer

Brian P Kurtz; Annah N Abrams

doi:10.1016/j.pcl.2011.06.009

Psychiatric aspects of pediatric cancer

Pediatr Clin North Am. 2011 Aug;58(4):1003-23, xii. doi: 10.1016/j.pcl.2011.06.009.

Authors

Brian P Kurtz¹, Annah N Abrams

Affiliation

¹ Department of Psychiatry, Division of Pediatric Psychiatry, Tufts Medical Center and Floating Hospital for Children at Tufts Medical Center, 800 Washington Street #1007, Boston, MA 02111, USA.

PMID: 21855719
DOI: 10.1016/j.pcl.2011.06.009

Abstract

The diagnosis and treatment of children and adolescents with cancer has a tremendous and lasting effect on the patients, their families, and other individuals in their social network. It carries a host of psychological and behavioral ramifications, from questions of mortality to changes in levels of functioning in multiple domains. In this review the authors address the psychosocial and treatment-related issues that arise in children with cancer, with attention to the adjustment to cancer at different developmental stages, mood and anxiety issues, treatment-related psychiatric sequelae, and the challenges faced by childhood cancer survivors.