DISTRESS AND RADIOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS OF THE URINARY-TRACT IN CHILDREN

The distress associated with radiological investigations may be relate d to the information and style of parental explanation given to the ch ild and the parents own coping style. In a questionnaire survey we ass essed distress in relation to investigations of the urinary tract usin g the Groningen Distress Rating Scale and the Utrecht Coping List. We found the micturating cystourethrogram (MCUG) to be significantly more distressing than radionuclide investigations. MCUG distress was adver sely correlated with passive and palliative parental coping styles. Re sults suggested that cognitive coping styles modelled by the parents a meliorated distress on dimercaptosuccinic acid scintigraphy. The high level of MCUG associated distress and presence of traumatised children in MCUG sample, along with the potential for parental contribution to distress reduction, suggests that both children and parents would ben efit from more active preparation programmes prior to MCUG testing.