Abstract
To recognise PTSD following admissions to intensive care units (ICUs).To understand how the ICU experience can lead to PTSD development.To understand how Ehlers and Clark's (2000) cognitive model of PTSD can be applied to post-ICU PTSD.To be able to apply cognitive therapy for PTSD to patients with post-ICU PTSD.
Highlights
Patients are admitted into intensive care units (ICU) when they need life-saving medical treatment
Approximately 13% of patients admitted to ICU die [Intensive Care National Audit and Research Centre (ICNARC), 2019], but early figures regarding COVID-19 cases indicate that mortality may be higher for this population, at over 50% at the time of writing (ICNARC, 2020), meaning that patients may be aware of others dying around them, and of their own high risk of death
When it comes to treatment, there is little published clinical guidance available for psychological therapists working with patients with post-ICU post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
Summary
Patients are admitted into intensive care units (ICU) when they need life-saving medical treatment. COVID-19 patients have typically become increasingly unwell over a period of time They may have greater awareness of their situation, and more access to factual memories, which has been found to be protective of PTSD (Jones et al, 2001). Patients with PTSD symptoms may be unable or unwilling to attend hospital follow-up clinics, due to ongoing physical problems and the distress associated with reminders of their experiences in hospital. When it comes to treatment, there is little published clinical guidance available for psychological therapists working with patients with post-ICU PTSD. We will focus predominantly on PTSD following treatment in ICU, much of the content is relevant to surviving critical illness in general, as well to medical traumas in other contexts
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