New research published in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine has found that an alarming number of patients are leaving intensive care with depression.

When researchers followed patients admitted to an intensive care unit in Nashville with sepsis or respiratory failure, they found that even 12 months after discharge, over a third of patients had depressive symptoms, occurring even in those with no history of depression. The researchers made a distinction between depression and post-traumatic stress of the hospital admission, with only 7% having post-traumatic stress disorder.

As well as mental difficulties, patients were continuing to have functional difficulties 12 months later, with trouble eating, dressing , and making plans and decisions without assistant. Some of this may be explained by the fact that most of the depressive symptoms were physical in nature rather than emotional, with patients have trouble with appetite, sleep, chronic fatigue, and chronic pain.

Noting that a discharge from intensive care leaves a patient three times more likely to develop depression than a normal person, the researchers highlighted the need for medical professionals to treat not just the physical injuries but also to prevent potential depression, in addition to treating the physical symptoms of depression and not just the emotional symptoms.

Faye Prior (Researcher)

Source

Jackson, J., Pandharipande, P., Girard, T., Brummel, N., Thompson, J. et al. (2014). Depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and functional disability in survivors of critical illness in the BRAIN-ICU study: a longitudinal cohort study. The Lancet Respiratory Medicine, Publish ahead of print, doi:10.1016/S2213-2600(14)70051-7.

Image: https://flic.kr/p/9ASXWK