A long-term follow-up study of psychosocial functioning after autologous bone marrow transplantation in childhood

Psychosocial functioning was assessed in 26 subjects treated with autologou s bone marrow transplantation (ABMT) for leukaemia or lymphoma before the a ge of 18 years. The median time from ABMT was 7 years (range 2-10 years), a nd the median age of the subjects at the evaluation was 16 years (range 7-2 4 years). Patients, parents and teachers were used as informants. Parents o f subjects in the ABMT group reported more behaviour problems than in a nor mative sample of school children, in particular of the internalising proble m type, a finding also supported by the teachers' report on the children's behaviour at school. The magnitude of the behaviour problems correlated pos itively to CNS treatment intensity. The parents rated their children's scho ol competence as lower than did parents of a normative sample. All school c hildren (n = 18) were in regular education, although five pupils were recei ving individual tutorial help. Overall, the patients reported a positive vi ew on their own functioning, in contrast to the higher levels of psychosoci al problems reported by their parents and teachers. The results thus show, that the psychosocial functioning seen in children treated because of cance r is dependent on the type of informant used. Copyright (C) 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.