Psychological distress in parents of children with acute lymphatic leukemia

Psychological distress in parents of children with acute lymphatic leukemia was evaluated by means of the Symptom Distress Checklist. This scale was administered twice: within a few days after the child's admission to hospital and 8 months later. Twenty-five consecutive, unselected subjects were compared with controls matched for age, sex, marital status and social class. At the first evaluation the sample presented higher mean scores than the controls for anxiety (P less than 0.005), depression (P less than 0.005), sleep disturbances (P less than 0.005) and obsessions (P less than 0.05). An 8 months' follow-up confirmed the persistence of anxiety (P less than 0.05), sleep disturbances (P less than 0.05) and above all depression (P less than 0.005).