EPA-1278 – “My Dad is Disfigured!” – Case Report of PTSD After Oncologic Disease of the Parent

Abstract

Introduction:

Studies show that children of oncologic patients resort more to psychiatric care and document the possibility that they face these episodes as traumatic events, easily developing PTSD if not properly signaled and followed.

Objectives:

The authors present the case of a boy who faced his father disease as a traumatic event, developing PTSD. They aim to describe the potential impact of parental oncologic diseases in children, as well as the benefits of acting preventively in those scenarios.

Methods:

Report of the clinical case of a 14 years old boy who was admitted as an outpatient at the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry after being referred by his General Practitioner for having initiated behavioral disturbances in reaction to his father oncologic disease, which led to a radical surgery of the face and neck with significant physiognomic changes. He has been followed in consultation, medicated with Risperidone 0,5mg and submitted to psychotherapy.

Results:

During approximately three months of treatment there was a wide improvement of the clinical condition with better acceptance of his father oncologic disease and of the physiognomic changes caused by the treatment. It is also noticeable the fading of his indignation against the medical community caused by the aggressive nature of the surgery.

Conclusions:

This case shows a situation that would have benefited from a preventive intervention, because given the mutilating nature of the treatment, the adolescent should have been prepared to face his father's new appearance from a therapeutic perspective and not as a traumatic event.