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The Impact of Poor Prognostic Patients Admitted to the Intensive Care Unit on Family Member's Emotional Disorders

Renata Rego Lins Fumis, Paulo Martins and Guilherme Schettino

Background: Having a loved one admitted to the ICU is an extraordinarily stressful event, principally with poor prognosis and when death may occur.

Aim: To evaluate the impact of poor prognosis patients admitted in the ICU on their family member’s emotional disorders. Design and setting: Prospective study conducted in a 22-bed mixed ICU in a tertiary hospital in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Family members completed the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale 48 hours post-admission. Family members answered the HADS, the Impact of Event Scale by phone at 30-days and 90-days after ICU discharge.

Results: 95/575 patients admitted at the ICU were defined as poor prognostic patients. Poor prognostic patients required more mechanical ventilation (50.0% vs. 32.9%, p=0.002), tracheotomy (11.6% vs. 5.0%, p=0.014), vasopressors (54.7% vs. 36.8%, p=0.001), remained longer under mechanical ventilation (7 [3-15] vs. 3 [2-6] days, p=0.030) and stay longer at ICU (8 [5-18] vs. 4 [3-8], p<0.001) when compared with non-poor prognosis patients. They also had high mortality at ICU (32.6%), 30-days (60.0%) and 90-days (73.5%) and we also observed an intense emotional suffering among their respective family members during and after ICU discharge.

Conclusion: Family members of poor prognosis patients admitted to the ICU were more likely to suffer with symptoms of anxiety, depression and post traumatic distress. Their loved ones needed more aggressive treatments during ICU and had higher mortality in a short time.