Psychological Stress in intensive care survivors

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A significant proportion of patients who have survived admission to an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) experience long-term psychological consequences that include anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). A high proportion of family members of ICU patients also present with varying psychological symptoms of anxiety, depression and PTSD. Currently there are no routine follow ups of psychological well-being of patients discharged from intensive care units in Australia. There are little data from Australia about the incidence of psychological stress in the local population of ICU survivors and family members. Understanding of the incidence of the psychological stress in ICU survivors and their family members could potentially lead to routine assessment of the problem and measures to reduce the incidence. The primary aim of this multicentre study is to determine and compare the prevalence of affective symptoms in intubated and non-intubated ICU survivors and their family members by screening them for PTSD, anxiety, depression and Health Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) over a 12-month follow up period. The secondary aims of this study are to identify the risk factors for adverse psychological outcomes in ICU survivors.