Recently Diagnosed or Relapsed? Stop Looking For a Miracle Cure, and Use Evidence-Based Therapies To Enhance Your Treatment and Prolong Your Remission
Multiple Myeloma an incurable disease, but I have spent the last 25 years in remission using a blend of conventional oncology and evidence-based nutrition, supplementation, and lifestyle therapies from peer-reviewed studies that your oncologist probably hasn't told you about.
Click the orange button to the right to learn more about what you can start doing today.
- You are here:
- Home »
- Blog »
- Multiple Myeloma »
- Stem Cell Transplant Causes PTSD?
Stem Cell Transplant Causes PTSD?
According to the research below, yes, a stem cell transplant can cause PTSD, aka post-traumatic stress disorder. The study below cites PTSD symptoms lasting far longer than previously believed.
I must state that I’m not comparing the effects of an ASCT to the trauma that sometimes results from war.
I began researching and posting about ASCT and PTSD when I noticed my own “hypervigilant” behaviour. I was diagnosed with MM in early 1994 and underwent an autologous stem cell transplant in December of 1995.
This is a video trying to explain the “typical” side effects of an ASCT. The oncologists highlight short-term side effects and do a minimal job of talking about long-term side effects like PTSD.
What are the main side effects of an autologous stem cell transplant & how are they managed? myeloma
The purpose of posting about an ASCT and PTSD is to make MM patients aware of this possible side effect. My awareness of my own hypervigilance helps me, as well as my wife and son, cope with this challenge.
Further, this is yet another reason why MM patients might not want to have an ASCT.
Email me at David.PeopleBeatingCancer@gmail.com to learn more about managing MM, possible side effects as well as new therapies on the horizon.
David Emerson
- MM Survivor
- MM Cancer Coach
- Director PeopleBeatingCancer
Post-Traumatic Stress Symptoms in Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant Recipients
ABSTRACT
Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HCT) is an intensive and potentially curative therapy for patients with hematologic malignancies. Patients admitted for HCT experience a prolonged, isolating hospitalization and endure substantial physical and psychological symptoms.
However, there is a paucity of research on the impact of HCT on post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms in transplant recipients. This secondary analysis of 250 patients who underwent autologous and allogeneic HCT examined PTSD using the PTSD Checklist-Civilian measured at 6 months after HCT. We used the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy—Bone Marrow Transplant, and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale to assess quality of life (QOL) and depression and anxiety symptoms at the time of admission for HCT, week 2 during hospitalization, and 6 months after HCT.
We used multivariate regression models to assess factors associated with PTSD symptoms. Given collinearity between QOL, depression, and anxiety symptoms, we modeled these separately. The rate of clinically significant PTSD symptoms at 6 months after HCT was 18.9% (39/206).
Participants with clinically significant PTSD symptoms experienced
- hypervigilance (92.3%),
- avoidance (92.3%),
- and intrusion (76.9%) symptoms.
Among patients without clinically significant PTSD symptoms, 24.5% had clinically significant hypervigilance symptoms and 13.7% had clinically significant avoidance symptoms.
Lower QOL at time of HCT admission (B = −0.04, P = .004) and being single (B = −3.35, P = .027) were associated with higher PTSD symptoms at 6 months after HCT.
Higher anxiety at time of HCT admission (B = 1.34, P <.001), change in anxiety during HCT hospitalization (B = 0.59, P=.006), and being single (B = −3.50, P = .017) were associated with higher PTSD symptoms at 6 months.
In a separate model using depression, younger age (B = −0.13, P = .017), being single (B = −3.58, P = .018), and higher baseline depression symptoms were also associated with higher PTSD symptoms at 6 months (B = 0.97, P < .001).
Approximately one fifth of patients undergoing HCT experience clinically significant PTSD symptoms at 6 months after transplantation. The prevalence of hypervigilance and avoidance symptoms are notable even among patients who do not have clinically significant PTSD symptoms. Interventions to prevent and treat PTSD symptoms in HCT recipients are clearly warranted…”
Landmark 20-Year Study Reshapes Understanding of PTSD
“A large 20-year study — the longest and most detailed of its kind — shows that posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms can endure for decades, challenging conventional timelines for recovery and offering new insights to guide future treatment…
Participants entered the WTCHP at different timepoints and were assessed annually. Not every enrollee was assessed every year, but the sheer number of participants and observations “just provides much greater density of data over that 20-year course than any previous study,” lead author Frank D. Mann, PhD, told Medscape Medical News.
The study was published online on May 27 in Nature Mental Health…”
stem cell transplant PTSD stem cell transplant PTSD stem cell transplant PTSD