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A new study finds that treatment in the intensive care unit has a unique set of terrors -- painful enough to be a precipitating factor in the onset of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The conclusion comes from a German study of patients who spent at least one month in the intensive care unit (ICU) at the University of Munich and were evaluated for PTSD up to three years later.

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Demand for intensive care unit (ICU) services is increasing [1], and at a rate that is higher than the average for all health care services [2]. Increase in treatment and monitoring technology, patients' expectations, and ageing population all contribute to this increased demand for intensive care services [1]. Indeed, intensive care is increasingly being provided to older and sicker patients, whom in the past were not treated in intensive care [3]. Intensive care services accounted for 10% of the US$2.1 trillion total health expenditures on health care in the United States in 2006 [4] and has been estimated to cost more than £700 million in the United Kingdom in 1999 [5]. The cost of intensive care services coupled with increasing demand provides the rationale for improved modelling of outcomes of critically ill patients.

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Background: Millions of patients are discharged from intensive care units annually. These intensive care survivors and their families frequently report a wide range of impairments in their health status which may last for months and years after hospital discharge.. Conclusions: Improving care for intensive care survivors and their families requires collaboration between practitioners and researchers in both the inpatient and outpatient settings. Strategies were developed to address the major themes arising from the conference to improve outcomes for survivors and families.

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The aim in this literature review is to describe the definitions, denominations, clinical signs and symptoms, explanations, causative factors and interrelationships of the intensive care syndrome discussed since 1950. It was found that there is no agreement about which symptoms should be included in the syndrome, when the syndrome may appear and how many patients may be affected. Furthermore, it is unclear what causes the development of the syndrome; most authors conclude that there are many reasons for it. The syndrome has generally been examined by using a medical or psychological approach, but during the last few years it has also been described and analysed from a nursing care perspective.

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The m-CCRP aims to improve the recovery of acute respiratory failure survivors utilizing a mobile care coordinator. The NIH-funded randomized controlled trial will evaluate the success of m-CCRP in improving the health-related quality of life as well as the cognitive, physical and psychological functioning of ARF survivors. Dr. Khan and colleagues will also determine if m-CCRP reduces future health care utilization by ICU survivors.

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Patients who have prolonged stays, getting intubated and sedated, may experience severe hallucinations, putting them at risk of PTSD for years to come, studies show.

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John Hopkins Medicine: Results of a multi-institutional national study of nearly 700 people who survived life-threatening illness with a stay in an intensive care unit suggest that a substantial majority of them are at high risk for persistent depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder -- especially if they are female, young and unemployed.

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A Kent State assistant professor’s research study on post-intensive care syndrome has linked family caregivers of intensive care unit patients as the unidentified population who suffer from unanticipated psychological symptoms.

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“Long Covid” is a condition currently affecting approximately 60,000 people in the UK – and which will inevitably continue to rise as we move through the pandemic – that is characterised by a variety of physiological and psychological issues. These can include fatigue, breathlessness, cognitive blunting (“brain fog”) and pain, and can require practical, medical and emotional support similar to that already offered by employers for conditions such as cancer, ME and diabetes.

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Harris is one of an ever-growing population of COVID-19 survivors who, months later, are still living with the aftermath of their infections. Some have lingering lung damage or must rebuild muscles that became weak after they spent weeks on a ventilator. Others were not even hospitalized, yet still struggle with fatigue, heart palpitations, brain fog or other lingering symptoms.

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"Long COVID" is nebulous, particularly because it can overlap with other complications of COVID-19 illness, such as hospitalization complications and post-intensive care syndrome, or even multisystem inflammatory disorder, said Alfonso Hernandez-Romieu, MD, of the CDC.

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Patients who survive long stays in the intensive care unit (ICU), such as those who receive prolonged mechanical ventilation, will most often require continued assistance from a caregiver more than a year after ICU discharge. The effects of this responsibility on the family caregivers are not well known but may include such negative consequences as poor health-related quality of life, emotional distress, a subjective sense of burden, and symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder.