Caring for young people with moderate to severe psoriasis: an interpretive description of parental perspectives

Mindful parenting intervention for parents of children with skin conditions: a single group experimental cases series

BACKGROUND

Parents of children with eczema or psoriasis experience high levels of parenting stress, which can negatively impact their child's mental and physical health.

AIMS

We aimed to investigate the effectiveness, feasibility and acceptability of a mindful parenting intervention for parents of children with eczema or psoriasis.

METHOD

Seven parents of children (4-12 years old) with eczema or psoriasis took part in an 8-week mindful parenting group intervention. A single-case experimental design was adopted, whereby parents completed daily idiographic measures of parenting stress related to their child's skin condition. Parents also completed standardised questionnaires measuring their parenting stress, depression, anxiety and quality of life, and children completed a quality of life measure, at four time points: baseline, pre-intervention, post-intervention and 6-week follow-up. Parents provided qualitative feedback after the intervention.

RESULTS

All parents completed the intervention and showed improvements in idiographic measures of parenting stress from baseline to follow-up. Improvements in parenting stress were larger at follow-up than post-intervention, suggesting the benefits of intervention continue beyond the intervention. Six of seven parent-child dyads showed improvement in at least one of the wellbeing measures, from pre-intervention to post-intervention or follow-up. Feasibility was demonstrated through good participant retention, adherence to home practice, and treatment fidelity. Acceptability was demonstrated through positive parent evaluations of the intervention.

CONCLUSIONS

Mindful parenting can be an effective, feasible and acceptable intervention for parents of children with eczema or psoriasis. Future studies should attempt to replicate the findings through randomised controlled trials.

Treatment goals and preferences of pediatric psoriasis patients, young adults, and parents

BACKGROUND

Treatment needs of young psoriasis patients and parents are not widely studied and could advance patient-centered care.

OBJECTIVE

To explore treatment goals and preferences of pediatric psoriasis patients, young adults, and parents.

METHODS

A web-based survey among Dutch psoriasis patients aged ≥6 to ≤30 years and parents included multiple-choice, open-ended, and 4-point Likert scale questions. Treatment goals and characteristic preferences of pediatric patients (≤17 years) were compared to young adults (≥18 years) and parents.

RESULTS

195 young patients (20.2 ± 6.3 years) and 45 parents were included. The most important treatment goals were 'preventing lesions', 'reducing lesions', 'no itch', and 'no lesions'. Regarding treatment characteristics, 'long-term safety', 'high effectiveness', and 'short-term safety' were most important. We found differences by age, gender, and current treatment. Pediatric patients rated 'not sticky', 'quick results', and 'no/few blood samples needed' higher than parents and/or young adults. Young adults rated 'feeling more confident' and 'better quality of sleep' higher than pediatric patients. Parents considered safety most important. Psychosocial goals were more important for women and patients on biologics.

CONCLUSION

Young psoriasis patients and parents mainly strive to clear lesions and itch with effective and safe treatment. However, revealed differences underline the relevance of addressing individual needs.