Reminiscent Stimuli and Distress in Parents of Children with Cancer.

摘要

Intrusive thoughts, experienced as vivid memories of an event, are a common symptom of chronic stress responding. Research has not addressed whether intrusive thoughts elicit the stress response, and whether populations suffering from chronic stress are susceptible to reminiscent stimuli. This study investigated the relationship between frequency of intrusive memories and both susceptibility to reminiscent stimuli and consequent distress in parents of children with cancer and parents with healthy children. The reminiscent stimulus task was a modified Stroop task. Subjects were presented with words printed in colored ink, their task was to callout the colors in which the words were printed. Embedded in the task were cancer words (e.g., "chemo " printed in green ink). Results indicated that subjects who reported frequent intrusive thoughts about their child's illness later proved cognitively and emotionally susceptible to a mild, reminiscent stimulus. However, experimental subjects were not physiologically reactive to the task.