A shift towards targeted post-ICU treatment: Multidisciplinary care for cardiac arrest survivors.

Intensive Care Unit (ICU) survivorship comprises a burgeoning area of critical care medicine, largely due to our improved understanding of and concern for patients' recovery trajectory, and efforts to mitigate the post-acute complications of critical illness. Expansion of care beyond hospitalization is necessary, yet evidence for post-ICU clinics remains limited and mixed, as both interventions and target populations studied to date are too heterogenous to meaningfully demonstrate efficacy. Here, we briefly present the existing evidence and limitations related to post-ICU clinics, identify cardiac arrest survivors as a unique ICU subpopulation warranting further investigation and treatment, and propose a clinical framework that addresses the multifaceted needs of this well-defined patient population.

Hypoactive Delirium: Differential Diagnosis, Evaluation, and Treatment.

The Psychiatric Consultation Service at Massachusetts General Hospital sees medical and surgical inpatients with comorbid psychiatric symptoms and conditions. During their twice-weekly rounds, Dr Stern and other members of the Consultation Service discuss diagnosis and management of hospitalized patients with complex medical or surgical problems who also demonstrate psychiatric symptoms or conditions. These discussions have given rise to rounds reports that will prove useful for clinicians practicing at the interface of medicine and psychiatry.Prim Care Companion CNS Disord 2024;26(1):23f03602. Author affiliations are listed at the end of this article.

Psychodynamic Implications of Treating Intensive Care Unit (ICU) Survivors.

The author, an internist and psychiatrist who works with intensive care unit (ICU) patients, offers reflections and clinical insights on implementing a psychodynamic framework when treating survivors of critical illness. In this short essay, contributions from the critical care and psychoanalytic literature are included to highlight the significance of post-intensive care syndrome (PICS) and the psychodynamic considerations that might enhance the treatment of this patient population.

Interdisciplinary Treatment for Survivors of Critical Illness due to COVID-19: Expanding the Post-Intensive Care Recovery Model and Impact on Psychiatric Outcomes.

BACKGROUND: Post-intensive care unit recovery programs for survivors of critical illness related to COVID-19 remain limited, ever-evolving, and under active investigation. Mental health professionals have an emerging role within this multidisciplinary care model. OBJECTIVE: This article explores the design and implementation of an intensive care unit follow-up clinic in New Orleans during the era of COVID-19. Survivors of a critical illness due to COVID-19 were offered multidisciplinary outpatient treatment and systematic psychological screening up to 6 months after the initial clinic visit. METHODS: We implemented a prospective, observational study at a post-intensive care syndrome (PICS) clinic for survivors of a critical illness related to COVID-19 embedded within an academic Veterans Affairs hospital. Our team identified patients at high risk of PICS and offered them a clinic consultation. Patients were provided the following interventions: review of the critical care course, medication reconciliation, primary care, psychopharmacotherapy, psychotherapy, and subspecialty referrals. Patients were followed up at 1- to 3-month intervals. Psychological symptom screening was conducted with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Checklist for the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-Fifth Edition, 9-question Patient Health Questionnaire, and 7-item Generalized Anxiety Disorder assessments. RESULTS: Seventy-seven total patients were identified to be at high risk of PICS from March to November 2020, and of this cohort, 44 (57.14%) survived their COVID-19 hospitalizations. Of the surviving 44 patients contacted, 21 patients established care in the PICS clinic and returned for at least 1 follow-up visit. At initial evaluation, 66.7% of patients demonstrated clinically meaningful symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. At 3-month follow-up, 9.5% of patients showed significant post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms. Moderate-to-severe symptoms of anxiety were present in 38.1% of patients at initial evaluation and in 4.8% of patients at 3 months. Moderate-to-severe symptoms of depression were present in 33.4% and 4.8% of patients at initial visit and at 3 months, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: A PICS clinic serves as a posthospitalization model of care for COVID-19 intensive care unit survivors. This type of health care infrastructure expands the continuum of care for patients enduring the consequences of a critical illness. We identified a high prevalence of post-traumatic stress, anxiety, and depression, along with other post- intensive care unit complications warranting an intervention. The prevalence of distressing psychological symptoms diminished across all domains by 3 months.

Implementing an intensive care unit (ICU) diary program at a large academic medical center: Results from a randomized control trial evaluating psychological morbidity associated with critical illness.

BACKGROUND: Psychological morbidity in both patients and family members related to the intensive care unit (ICU) experience is an often overlooked, and potentially persistent, healthcare problem recognized by the Society of Critical Care Medicine as Post-intensive Care Syndrome (PICS). ICU diaries are an intervention increasingly under study with potential to mitigate ICU-related psychological morbidity, including ICU-related post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression and anxiety. As we encounter a growing number of ICU survivors, in particular in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, clinicians must be equipped to understand the severity and prevalence of significant psychiatric complications of critical illness. METHODS: We compared the efficacy of the ICU diary, written by family and healthcare workers during the patient's intensive care course, versus education alone in reducing acute PTSD symptoms after discharge. Patients with an ICU stay >72 h, who were intubated and mechanically ventilated over 24 h, were recruited and randomized to either receive a diary at bedside with psychoeducation or psychoeducation alone. Intervention patients received their ICU diary within the first week of admission into the intensive care unit. Psychological symptom screening with IES-R, PHQ-8, HADS and GAD-7 was conducted at baseline within 1 week of ICU discharge and at weeks 4, 12, and 24 after ICU discharge. Change from baseline in these scores was assessed using Wilcoxon rank sum tests. RESULTS: From September 26, 2017 to September 25, 2018, our team screened 265 patients from the surgical and medical ICUs at a single large academic urban hospital. 60 patients were enrolled and randomized, of which 35 patients completed post-discharge follow-up, (n = 18) in the diary intervention group and (n = 17) in the education-only control group. The control group had a significantly greater decrease in PTSD, hyperarousal, and depression symptoms at week 4 compared to the intervention group. There were no significant differences in other measures, or at other follow-up intervals. Both study groups exhibited clinically significant PTSD symptoms at all timepoints after ICU discharge. Follow-up phone interviews with patients revealed that while many were interested in getting follow-up for their symptoms, there were many barriers to accessing appropriate therapy and clinical attention. CONCLUSIONS: Results from psychological screening tools demonstrate no benefit of ICU diaries versus bedside education-alone in reducing PTSD symptoms related to the intensive care stay. However, our study finds an important gap in clinical practice - patients at high risk for PICS are infrequently connected to appropriate follow-up care. Perhaps ICU diaries would prove beneficial if utilized to support the work within a program providing wrap-around services and close psychiatric follow up for PICS patients. This study demonstrates the high prevalence of ICU-related PTSD in our cohort of survivors, the high barrier to accessing care for appropriate treatment of PICS, and the consequence of that barrier-prolonged psychological morbidity. TRIAL REGISTRATION: NCT04305353. GRANT IDENTIFICATION: GH-17-022 (Arnold P. Gold Foundation).