Psychological Distress in Patients with Pectus Excavatum as an Indication for Therapy
300
Suita et al. comment that the precise indications for
surgical repair of PE is still open [12]. In our opinion, the
definition of the indication should depend on physical
and psychological characteristics in each case. In the
course of this, not only somatic data, but also psycho-
logical factors should be considered. We think psycho-
logical aspects should not only be taken into considera-
tion but the children with PE should be presented to a
psychologist. We recommend including psychological
distress to the list of indications for therapy as an inde-
pendent factor. Nevertheless, further studies with more
patients will be needed to underline our findings.
5. Conclusions
In summary, most children with PE suffered from psy-
chological strain and all patients improved after therapy.
We therefore recommend working together with psy-
chologists to extend the indications for therapy of PE to
psychological problems. The individual psychological
limitation can be assessed by psychologists using special
medical tests, projective tests and interviews with the
patients and their parents. Thus, it is possible to gain in-
formation in several dimensions especially attractiveness,
self-esteem and social life which affect the patients in all
areas of life. We conclude that the psychological indica-
tion for treatment is justified, since our results support
this indication.
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