Psychological stress, information, and treatment expectations of parents with children who have cochlear implants

Established knowledge. It is known that parents of hard-of-hearing children suffer from an increase in psychosocial stress. Scientific question. How does the psychosocial situation of parents with ch ildren who have cochlear implants change during rehabilitation? Aim of study, It was the aim of this study to demonstrate how parents evalu ate retrospectively their own psychological well-being during the process o f rehabilitation. Methods and results. We interviewed 87 parents by questionnaires which were mailed to them. Fifty-seven mothers and 46 fathers responded (59% return r ate). Parents reported a significant increase in stress, as perceived by th emselves, after the time of diagnosis. Of the parents, 25% continued to suf fer from psychic stress during rehabilitation as could be demonstrated by t he SCL-90-R questionnaire criteria. The expectations try parents were reali stic prior to implantation but thereafter increased significantly with time . Conclusions. The psychological state of parents during the critical phase, after a diagnosis of deafness has been made far their child, has to be cons idered. Even after an initial phase of shock, parents seemed to be stressed to an extent that required therapeutic intervention.