Psychosocial Health Of Siblings Of Childhood Cancer Survivors; With An Emphasis On Posttraumatic Stress

A diagnosis of childhood cancer is a formidable challenge that can put the family s stability andadaptive functioning at a great risk. Following diagnosis, families not only have to face thedifficulties of helping a child cope with the physical and emotional distress of the medicaltreatments, they must also struggle, both collectively and individually, with the ambiguityassociated with the short- and long-term prognosis of this disease and the side effects of treatment.In this article, we have tried to provide a review of a number of related articles with the purpose ofcollecting data on the process of adjustment to childhood cancer, short- and long- term effects onsiblings in particular, and ways of more effective assessment and intervention. We have putprimary focus on posttraumatic stress (PTS), one of the probable long-term effects of childhoodcancer on siblings which is yet to be studied in order to investigate more closely its frequency andpossible demands. Formulating assessment and intervention methods with regards to PTS andother long-term effects, as well as addressing the limitations of previous research can beconsidered for future works.