Women are more prone to suffer from post-traumatic stress than men after having spent some time in an intensive care unit (ICU), suggests a new study.
However, psychological and physical 'follow-up' are able to decrease both this and post-ICU depression.
Patients in the ICU often fell prone to post-traumatic stress, anxiety, or depression. This is not because of the illness or trauma that kept the patient there, but also due to the very nature of the ICU and life-saving treatment given to them.
Keeping in view these things follow-up schemes are provided to eliminate these psychological problems.
To come to this conclusion, researchers from the Karolinska University Hospital Solna and the Karolinska Institute, matched patient's recovery from 2006, before a follow-up scheme was put in to effect to that of patients in 2007 and 2008.
The scheme consist of non-compulsory meetings that were held at interval of three, six and 12 months after being discharged from ICU with a nurse, physician and a physiotherapist, revisiting the ICU, and in emergency situations being referred to a psychiatric unit for further treatment.
Before getting benefitted with the follow-up scheme women had much higher scores on the Impact Event Scale (IES) that is an indication of post-traumatic stress, than men. In the women who were given treatment with the follow-up, these scores were considerably low. On the other hand, the scheme had no impact on the IES score of men.
"In general, for the same event, women are twice as likely to suffer post-traumatic stress disorder, recover more slowly, and are more prone to suffer long-term effects. We found this was also true in ICU survivors. The women with the highest IES scores were the ones who were most helped by the follow-up scheme. While it is not clear whether the scheme only helps patients at severe risk of PTSD, it does mean that these people have access to the treatment they need," Dr Peter Sackey, lead of the study has been quoted as saying.
BioMed Central's open access journal Critical Care has published this study.
--with inputs from ANI
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