Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2025 Jan;41(1):73-88.
doi: 10.1016/j.ccc.2024.08.008. Epub 2024 Sep 17.

Post-Intensive Care Syndrome Family

Alyssa C Smith  1 , Haley N Ferguson  2 , Rachel M Russell  1 , Parth Savsani  2 , Sophia Wang  3
Affiliations
Review

Post-Intensive Care Syndrome Family

Alyssa C Smith et al. Crit Care Clin. 2025 Jan.

Abstract

Family members of patients admitted to intensive care units often experience psychological distress, including depression, anxiety, and trauma symptoms, known as post-intensive care syndrome-family (PICS-F), due to the stress from having a critically ill loved one and resultant caregiver burden. Awareness of this syndrome is needed, as are prevention and management strategies, to improve outcomes.

Keywords: Caregiver burden; Critical care illness; PICS; PICS-F; Post-intensive care syndrome family.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Disclosures Drs A.C. Smith, H.N. Ferguson, R.M. Russell, and P. Savsani report no disclosures. Dr S. Wang has received book royalties from American Psychiatric Publishing, Inc. and consultant fees for serving on Data Safety Monitoring Board for an NIA funded grant awarded to University of Illinois at Chicago.

References

    1. Barrett ML, Smith MW, Elixhauser A, Honigman LS, Pines JM. Utilization of Intensive Care Services, 2011. Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) Statistical Briefs. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (US); 2006. - PubMed
    1. Needham DM, Davidson J, Cohen H, et al. Improving long-term outcomes after discharge from intensive care unit: report from a stakeholders’ conference. Crit Care Med. Feb 2012;40(2):502–9. doi:10.1097/CCM.0b013e318232da75 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Harvey MA. The truth about consequences--post-intensive care syndrome in intensive care unit survivors and their families. Crit Care Med. Aug 2012;40(8):2506–7. doi:10.1097/CCM.0b013e318258e943 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Davidson JE, Jones C, Bienvenu OJ. Family response to critical illness: postintensive care syndrome-family. Crit Care Med. Feb 2012;40(2):618–24. doi:10.1097/CCM.0b013e318236ebf9 - DOI - PubMed
    1. American Psychiatric Association: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Fifth Edition, Text Revision ed. American Psychiatric Association; 2022.

Supplementary concepts