Sleep quality implicates in life quality: An analysis about children who suffered burns

摘要

We read the article entitled "Health-related quality of life in Swedish pediatric burn patients and associations with burn and family characteristics" by Sveen and colleagues [1] with great interest. The authors present an important analysis about health-related quality of life of children who suffered burns and of their parents, which is a very important aspect regarding an incident like that. We would like to make some additional considerations about the study. Burns are one of the most painful injuries, causing a strong psychological impact. During treatment period, both pain and itch medications interfere on sleep initiation, maintenance and quality [2]. Although many of the children recover from their injuries, the episode can be very traumatic. According to the results found by the authors, children usually recover from physical damage, while some psycho-social problems remain for a long time. For example, after a few months of recovery, preschool children present disturbed externalizingbehaviors, such as temper tantrums and aggression. School-aged children present post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression and anxiety, even after years of recovery [3].