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. 2015 Jan 23;10(1):e0115332.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0115332. eCollection 2015.

Emotional disorders in pairs of patients and their family members during and after ICU stay

Renata Rego Lins Fumis  1 , Otavio T Ranzani  2 , Paulo Sérgio Martins  1 , Guilherme Schettino  1
Affiliations

Emotional disorders in pairs of patients and their family members during and after ICU stay

Renata Rego Lins Fumis et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Introduction: Patients and family members undergo different experiences of suffering from emotional disorders during ICU stay and after ICU discharge. The purpose of this study was to compare the incidence of anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms in pairs (patient and respective family member), during stay at an open visit ICU and at 30 and 90-days post-ICU discharge. We hypothesized that there was a positive correlation with the severity of symptoms among pairs and different patterns of suffering over time.

Methods: A prospective study was conducted in a 22-bed adult general ICU including patients with >48 hours stay. The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) was completed by the pairs (patients/respective family member). Interviews were made by phone at 30 and 90-days post-ICU discharge using the Impact of Event Scale (IES) and the HADS. Multivariate models were constructed to predict IES score at 30 days for patients and family members.

Results: Four hundred and seventy one family members and 289 patients were interviewed in the ICU forming 184 pairs for analysis. Regarding HADS score, patients presented less symptoms than family members of patients who survived and who deceased at 30 and 90-days (p<0.001). However, family members of patients who deceased scored higher anxiety and depression symptoms (p = 0.048) at 90-days when compared with family members of patients who survived. Patients and family members at 30-days had a similar IES score, but it was higher in family members at 90-days (p = 0.019). For both family members and patients, age and symptoms of anxiety and depression during ICU were the major determinants for PTSD at 30-days.

Conclusions: Anxiety, depression and PTSD symptoms were higher in family members than in the patients. Furthermore, these symptoms in family members persisted at 3 months, while they decreased in patients.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Flow chart of the study.
Figure 2
Figure 2. HADS score over time distributed between groups.
Figure 3
Figure 3. Correlation between patients and family members anxiety and depression scores considering values from ICU, 30 and 90-days after ICU discharge.
HADS denotes Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale. The x- and y-axis were logarithmic transformed.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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