Psychological impact of islet cell antibody screening

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the psychological impact of autoa ntibody screening and its results on at-risk individuals and family members . Individuals who were antibody positive (AP) were identified through a lar ge-scale screening program conducted at our institute. The sample consisted of nine families in whom 10 AP youngsters (7 M, 3 F) were identified, rang ing in age from 6-18 years (mean 11.8, median 10 yr), Seventeen parents and eight diabetic youngsters (mean age 15.2, median 16 yr) participated in th e study. Reaction to autoantibody positivity was assessed with the Impact o f Event scale (IES). The IES was answered twice: within a week from the dis closure of the AP status, and 3 months later. Parents scored higher than th eir diabetic children and AP children on both measures of the IES, Intrusio n and Avoidance. Three months later both scores were significantly reduced in both the parents and the AP children; however, parents still scored sign ificantly higher on both scores than the AP children. The results suggest t hat learning one's AP status induces significant anxiety, especially in par ents of AP youngsters. Although this initial anxiety dissipates over time i t still remains quite high after 3 months. The results highlight the import ance of psychosocial counseling for all members of diabetes mellitus screen ing and prevention trials.