Stress in families of children with neuromuscular disease

Compared parents of children with neuromuscular disease to parents of children with psychiatric diagnoses using the Questionnaire on Resources and Stress. The groups showed different patterns of stress, with three of the subscales correctly classifying 93% of the cases in a discriminant function analysis. Parents of neuromuscular cases were more pessimistic, while those of psychiatric cases reported more problems in family integration and in the child's personality. For the neuromuscular group alone, parents whose children were in wheelchairs scored significantly higher than those whose children were ambulatory on six QRS scales: Excess Time Demands, Overcommitment/Martyrdom, Limits on Family Opportunity, Physical Incapacitation for Index Case, Lack of Activities for Index Case, Occupation Limitations. Hence, not only does the type of personal and family stress differ for the Neuromuscular and Child Psychiatry respondents, but within the neuromuscular sample the increase in stress as the disease progresses is related to higher scores on QRS scales.