CCN Fast Facts CriticalCareNurse
The journal for high acuity, progressive, and critical care nursing
Posttraumatic Stress Syndrome Associated
With Stays in the Intensive Care Unit:
Importance of Nurses’ Involvement
Warlan H, Howland L. Posttraumatic stress syndrome associated with stays in the intensive care unit: importance of nurses’ involvement. Critical Care Nurse.
2015;35(3):44-54.
Facts
Intensive care unit (ICU) patients are particularly at
risk for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) because of
their experience of a life-threatening illness or trauma
and because of treatments and interventions received in
the ICU.
• Categories associated with the critical care environ-
ment for ICU-related PTSD include use of specific
medications such as vasopressors and sedatives,
treatment with mechanical ventilation, delusional
memories of the ICU, and agitation.
• Two factors that may be major contributors to the
development of PTSD in ICU patients are severity
of illness and longer ICU stay.
• Possibly, a patient’s perceptions of the ICU experience
rather than the length of ICU stay or severity of illness
contribute to the signs and symptoms of PTSD.
Complications Associated With PTSD
• Cardiovascular complications due to activation of
the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and the
sympathetic adrenal medullary axis lead to hyper-
tension, tachycardia, dyslipidemia, diabetes, and
endothelial dysfunction. If this upregulation of the
stress response is prolonged, these cardiovascular
changes cause endothelial damage to vessels and
eventually atherosclerosis, which is associated with
myocardial infarction and embolic stroke.
• PTSD may also be linked with metabolic syndrome,
a known cluster of cardiovascular signs and symp-
toms that puts a person at risk for coronary artery
disease, stroke, and type II diabetes mellitus.
Nursing Implications
• Because patients may not seek help on their own,
detection of patients at risk for PTSD after ICU dis-
charge and before fully recognizable PTSD devel-
ops is important.
• One strategy for early identification of patients at
risk for post-ICU PTSD is an automated screening
procedure based on elements in a patient’s elec-
tronic medical record.
• Nurses can advocate for a mental health consulta-
tion before discharge from the ICU or hospital for
ICU patients at risk for PTSD.
• Providing follow-up after discharge may be use-
ful in early identification of patients at risk for
PTSD so long as the follow-up is done within a few
months after hospital discharge.
• By regularly assessing patients for risk factors,
during routine physical assessment and medication
review, nurses can intervene directly or advocate
for treatments to make the ICU environment less
stressful and to promote recovery.
• Nurses can advocate for the use of lighter target
levels of sedation or the routine use of a daily-
awakening protocol.
• Early mobilization protocols can also help mitigate
delirium and agitation and expedite extubation.
• Adequately managing a patient’s pain can both
encourage the patient’s participation in early mobi-
lization protocols and reduce agitation.
• A diary of a patient’s ICU experience kept by nurses
and the patient’s family members can help fill gaps
in the patient’s memory of the ICU stay. -