Health-related quality of life and well-being in parents of infants and toddlers with cancer

Background

The unique psychosocial needs of parents and caregivers of young children with cancer are poorly understood. The aims of the present study were to examine health-related quality of life (hrqol), stress, and psychological distress in parents of young children (0-4 years) diagnosed with cancer; and the associations between parent psychosocial functioning and child treatment characteristics.

Methods

Parents (n = 35) with a child (n = 19 male, 54.3%) 0-48 months of age (median: 31.06 months) on active cancer therapy were recruited. Parents completed questionnaires related to demographics, parent hrqol, parenting stress, posttraumatic stress symptoms, and parent psychological distress.

Results

Parents reported clinically elevated parenting stress (5.9%), posttraumatic stress symptoms (18.2%), and psychological distress (21.9%). Compared with population norms, parents reported lower hrqol in the vitality (t = 5.37, p < 0.001), mental health (t = 4.02, p < 0.001), role limitation-emotional (t = 3.52, p < 0.001), and general health perceptions (t = 2.25, p = 0.025) domains. Social functioning (β = 0.33, p = 0.041) predicted general health perceptions; vitality (β = 0.30, p = 0.134) and parent mental health (β = 0.24, p = 0.285) did not [F _(3,29) = 12.64, p < 0.001, R ² = 0.57].

Conclusions

A subset of parents of young children on active cancer treatment experience clinically elevated psychosocial symptoms. Having poor social connections put parents at risk of perceiving their health more poorly in general. Supports that focus on preventing the emergence of clinically significant distress should focus on parents of young children with cancer who are most at risk of poor outcomes.

A randomized controlled trial of working memory and processing speed training in schizophrenia

BACKGROUND

Although prior research has shown that cognitive training may improve cognition for schizophrenia patients, it is currently unclear which domains of cognition should be targeted in training. One suggestion is to target low- or mid-level cognitive processes. In particular, working memory (WM) and processing speed (PS) have been named as two key areas of impairment in schizophrenia, and two domains of cognition that are linked to higher-order cognition and daily functioning. This study aimed to investigate the near-transfer (transfer of gains to related contexts), far-transfer (transfer of gains to unrelated contexts), and real-world gains associated with WM and PS training in schizophrenia.

METHODS

Eighty-three participants with schizophrenia were recruited and randomly assigned to computerized WM training, PS training, or a no-training control group. Outcome measures included WM, PS, fluid intelligence, executive functioning, social cognition, and daily functioning and symptoms.

RESULTS

PS training led to significant gains in untrained PS tasks, as well as gains in far-transfer tasks that required speed of processing. WM training did not lead to gains in untrained WM tasks and showed inconsistent effects on some far-transfer tasks.

CONCLUSIONS

These results suggest some benefit of domain-specific cognitive training, specifically PS training, in schizophrenia. Far-transfer of gains to other cognitive domains and to real-world functioning may not occur after targeted WM or PS training, though non-specific effects (e.g. through behavioral activation, increased motivation) may lead to improvements in some tasks. Future studies should continue to investigate the mechanisms by which cognitive training may enhance cognition and functioning in schizophrenia.