July 22, 2002 |
Contact:
HRSA Press Office
301-443-3376 |
A new HRSA-supported study on acute stress disorder (ASD) in children
and their parents after a child has been injured in a traffic accident
indicates that both show ASD symptoms regardless of a parent’s presence
at the accident scene. More than 300,000 children are injured
in traffic crashes each year in the United States.
Flaura Winston and a team of researchers at the University of Pennsylvania
School of Medicine conducted the study, the first that looks at ASD
in parents of children injured in traffic accidents. “Acute Stress
Disorder Symptoms in Children and Their Parents After Pediatric Traffic
Injury,” published in the June issue of Pediatrics (www.pediatrics.org),
investigates ASD symptoms in children ages 5 to 17 who were admitted
to a large urban pediatric hospital after a car or bicycle accident.
Questionnaires given to children and parents or guardians covered four
types of ASD symptoms: dissociation, re-experiencing, avoidance and
hyperarousal.
Study findings indicate:
- Eighty-eight percent of children and 83 percent of parents reported
at least one of the four types of ASD symptoms, affecting 90 percent
of the families;
- Twenty-eight percent of children and 23 percent of parents experienced
all four ASD symptoms; and
- Children most often reported dissociation -- feelings of unreality
or emotional numbing.
One-quarter to one-third of injured children and 15 percent of their
parents develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after a traffic
accident. PTSD is diagnosed when symptoms persist for more than
one month.
Due to the high prevalence of pediatric traffic crashes and the fact
that PTSD is often not diagnosed, the researchers urge pediatricians
to be alert to any distress in order to prevent problems later.
They recommend calling family members several days and one to two weeks
after an accident to offer them an opportunity to discuss their feelings
about the crash. The authors also suggest questioning families
of regular patients during routine health visits about whether their
children had experienced a recent traffic injury.
For more information on the Maternal and Child Health Bureau’s Research
Program, visit www.mchb.hrsa.gov.
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