Jones Jill K, Evans John F, Barfield Raymond C
Trinity College of Arts & Sciences, Duke University, Durham, NC, United States.
Duke Integrative Medicine, Durham, NC, United States.
Front Pediatr. 2021 Feb 4;9:579003. doi: 10.3389/fped.2021.579003. eCollection 2021.
Childhood cancer is a stressful experience. No pediatric patient, however, should be made to feel as if their concerns and feelings about their cancer experience must be bottled up inside. Importantly, talking and writing about one's illness has myriad implications for young cancer patients and survivors. The most salient of these may include increased understanding of one's condition as well as improved physical and cognitive symptoms (e.g., lowered depression, decreased anxiety, and an enhanced quality of life overall). This literature review explores three promising avenues for verbal therapy in the pediatric oncology setting: expressive writing, video narratives, and bibliotherapy exercises. Several recent studies, covering verbal therapy methods from illness blogging to book interventions, are referenced and discussed. Ultimately, we conclude that expressive writing, video narratives, and bibliotherapy exercises are valuable, feasible, inexpensive, and acceptable tools for patients and survivors of childhood cancer to facilitate self-expression-and to find meaning in the uncertainty and anxiety that cancer inherently fosters. We recommend that future studies investigate this theme so that we may improve quality of life and mental health for pediatric cancer patients and survivors worldwide.
儿童癌症是一段充满压力的经历。然而，不应让任何儿科患者觉得他们对癌症经历的担忧和感受必须憋在心里。重要的是，谈论和书写自己的病情对年轻的癌症患者及其幸存者有诸多影响。其中最显著的可能包括对自身病情的理解加深以及身体和认知症状的改善（例如，抑郁减轻、焦虑减少以及整体生活质量提高）。这篇文献综述探讨了儿科肿瘤环境中言语治疗的三条有前景的途径：表达性写作、视频叙事和阅读疗法练习。引用并讨论了最近的几项研究，涵盖了从疾病博客到书籍干预等言语治疗方法。最终，我们得出结论，表达性写作、视频叙事和阅读疗法练习是儿童癌症患者及其幸存者促进自我表达、在癌症必然带来的不确定性和焦虑中找到意义的有价值、可行、廉价且可接受的工具。我们建议未来的研究对这一主题进行调查，以便我们能提高全球儿科癌症患者及其幸存者的生活质量和心理健康水平。
