Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Clinical approaches to traumatized parents: Psychotherapy in the intensive-care nursery

  • Articles
  • Published:
Child Psychiatry and Human Development Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Clinical approaches to parents who are traumatized by the birth of a premature or defective infant are described. Psychotherapy with parents in the intensive-care nursery relieves suffering and promotes growth and development of the vulnerable parent-infant relationship in this extraordinary setting. Crisis intervention seeks to re-establish parents' temporarily disrupted psychological equilibrium. Supportive psychotherapy helps parents establish and maintain adaptation at a new level. Insight-oriented psychotherapy brings into awareness past conflicts that are interfering with an optimal parent-infant relationship.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Drotar D: Consultation in the intensive care nursery.Int J Psychiat 7: 69–81, 1976.

    Google Scholar 

  2. Kachoris PJ: Psychodynamic considerations in the neonatal i.c.u..Critical Care Med 5: 62–65, 1977.

    Google Scholar 

  3. Sherman M: Psychiatry in the neonatal intensive care unit.Clinics in Perinatol 7: 33–46, 1980.

    Google Scholar 

  4. Freud WE: Notes on some psychological aspects of neonatal intensive care. In Greenspan SI, Pollock GH (ed),The course of life: psychoanalytic contributions toward understanding personality development, Vol 1: Infancy and early childhood. NIMH, 1980.

  5. Sherman M: The neonatal intensive care unit.Psychiatric Clin N Am 5: 433–443, 1982.

    Google Scholar 

  6. Zeanah CH, Jones JD: Maintaining the parent-staff alliance in an intensive care nursery.Psychosom 23: 1238–1251, 1982.

    Google Scholar 

  7. Samarawcera S, Maylan F, Larrogue CJ, Patterson A, Angoff K, Katsenstein V: Earliest intervention in neonatal intensive care units: A team approach. In Call JD, Galenson E, Tyson RI (ed.,Frontiers of infant psychiatry. New York: Basic Books, 1983.

    Google Scholar 

  8. Prugh DG: Emotional problems of the premature infant's parents.Nursing Outlook 1: 461–464, 1953.

    Google Scholar 

  9. Solnit AJ, Stark MH; Mourning and the birth of a defective child.Psychoanal Study of the Child 16: 523–537, 1961.

    Google Scholar 

  10. Caplan G, Mason EA, Kaplan DM: Four studies of crisis in parents of prematures.Community Mental Health J 1: 149–161, 1965.

    Google Scholar 

  11. Drotar D, Baskiewicz A, Irvin N, Kinnell JH, Klaus MH: The adaptation of parents to the birth of an infant with a congenital malformation: A hypothetical model.Pediatr 56: 710–717, 1975.

    Google Scholar 

  12. Benfield DG, Leib SA, Reutor J: Grief response of parents following referral of the critically ill newborn.N Eng J Med 294: 975–978, 1976.

    Google Scholar 

  13. Harper RG, Sia C, Sokal M: Observations on unrestricted parental contact with infants in the neonatal intensive care unit.J Pediatr 89: 441–445, 1976.

    Google Scholar 

  14. Yu VYH: Caring for parents of high-risk infants.Med J Australia 2: 534–537, 1977.

    Google Scholar 

  15. Grant P: Psychosocial needs of families of high-risk infants.Family and Community Health 1: 35–39, 1978.

    Google Scholar 

  16. Arney WR, Nazy JN, Little GA: Caring for parents of sick newborns.Clin Pediatr 1: 35–39, 1978.

    Google Scholar 

  17. Jeffcoate JA, Humphrey ME, Lloyd JK: Role perception and response to stress in fathers and mothers following preterm delivery.Social Science and Med 134: 139–145, 1979.

    Google Scholar 

  18. Yu VYH, Jamieson J, Astbury J: Parents' reactions to unrestricted parental contact with infants in the intensive care nurseryMed J Australia 6: 294–296, 1981.

    Google Scholar 

  19. Klaus MH, Kinnell JH:Parent-Infant Bonding. St. Louis: C.V. Mosby, 1982.

    Google Scholar 

  20. Hancock E: Crisis intervention in a newborn nursery intensive care unit.Social Work in Health Care 1: 421–432, 1976.

    Google Scholar 

  21. Nadelson T: Engagement before alliance.Psychotherapeut Psychosomat 33: 76–86, 1980.

    Google Scholar 

  22. Fraiberg S:Clinical Studies in Infant Mental Health. New York: Basic Books, 1981.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Duke University Medical Center, Durham, USA

    J. David Jones MD (Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, and Director ofthe Pediatric Psychiatry Liaison Team)

  2. Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, CA, USA

    Charles H. Zeanah MD (a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Division of Child Psychiatry and Child Development)

  3. Stanford University Hospital, Palo Alto, CA, USA

    Charlene I. Canger LCSW, MFCC (a Clinical Social Worker in the Intensive-Care Nursery)

Authors
  1. Charles H. Zeanah MD
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Charlene I. Canger LCSW, MFCC
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. J. David Jones MD
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Additional information

This work is supported in part by NIMH (MH 16744) and by the Ehrman Fellowship of the National Center for Clinical Infant Programs.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Zeanah, C.H., Canger, C.I. & Jones, J.D. Clinical approaches to traumatized parents: Psychotherapy in the intensive-care nursery. Child Psych Hum Dev 14, 158–169 (1984). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00717323

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00717323

Keywords

Search

Navigation