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. 2014 Mar-Apr;31(2):104-13.
doi: 10.1177/1043454213520346.

Anxiety, depression, stress, and cortisol levels in mothers of children undergoing maintenance therapy for childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia

Madalynn Neu  1 , Ellyn Matthews, Nancy A King, Paul F Cook, Mark L Laudenslager
Affiliations

Anxiety, depression, stress, and cortisol levels in mothers of children undergoing maintenance therapy for childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia

Madalynn Neu et al. J Pediatr Oncol Nurs. 2014 Mar-Apr.

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to compare anxiety, depression, and stress between mothers of children during maintenance treatment for acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and matched controls. Twenty-six mothers were recruited from the hematology unit at a children's hospital, and 26 mothers were recruited from the community. Participants were matched to their child's age and gender. Mothers completed the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, the Perceived Stress Sale, and collected salivary cortisol 4 times a day for 3 consecutive days. Compared with mothers of healthy children, anxiety scores did not differ (P=.10), but depression scores were higher (P=.003) in mothers of children with ALL. More mothers in the ALL group scored above the cutoff of 7 indicating clinical anxiety (46%) and depressive symptoms (27%). A trend toward increased stress was found in mothers in the ALL group. No difference was found in overall daily cortisol (area under the curve), daily decrease in cortisol (slope), and cortisol awakening response. Mothers of children with ALL experienced emotional symptoms many months after the initial diagnosis.

Keywords: ALL; acute lymphoblastic leukemia; depression; maintenance; salivary.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared the following potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: Paul Cook reports research support from Merck & Co, Inc. The other authors report no potential conflicts of interest.

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