Explorative prospective study of the psychological state of oncological pediatric patients and their caregivers and of the neuropsychological state of patients

Abstract

The primary aim of this explorative and prospective study was, approved by Ethics Committee, prot.n.46882/2015, to understand the psychological state of pediatric cancer patients after the first diagnosis of the disease, and of their parents, with follow-up at 3 and 12 months. The neuropsychological status of patients was analysed too. The tests used for this research were the TAD and BVN-battery neuropsychological evaluation (for 5-18 years old) and HADS questionnaire for the caregivers. Had completed the study 8 patient-caregiver couples: with various diagnoses that required chemotherapy. A baseline survey the average of HADS the 50% of caregivers showed a pathological score of anxiety. There is no score that had detected distress in the patient. In the last follow up, one year later, only the 8% of caregivers showed high level of distress (anxiety/depression). Some cognitive functions progressively got worse during the year of the study long term memory (MLT) and phonemic fluent test (TFF).