Effects of post ICU debriefing on the development of depression, anxiety, and PTSD symptoms

Due to advances in medical care, the number of patients surviving critical illness is on the rise. As a result, our healthcare system has a new and growing subset of patients dealing with a variety of issues related to survivorship. These issues, called post-intensive care syndrome, fall into three pillars: physical, cognitive, and psychiatric. While targeted efforts have begun to attempt to manage the physical and cognitive deficits, how to treat the psychiatric deficits remains unclear. So far, the handful of studies attempting to treat these psychiatric outcomes via a variety of approaches have had only limited success. Further, there is an inadequate understanding of the patient perception of these experiences and to better grasp this may help target future studies. The proposed study is a randomized, non-blinded, longitudinal controlled trial with the goal to limit the development of psychiatric symptoms following ICU admission. The intervention, conducted by a trained, Licensed Clinical Social Worker will take place in the form of a one time, in hospital debriefing of the ICU experience. Following the intervention, the patients will be surveyed to identify the presence of PTSD symptoms at various time intervals following hospital discharge. In addition, a number of interviews will be recorded and undergo qualitative analysis to identify cohesive themes and develop a better understanding of the patient perception of their experience. If successful, this study would lead to an improved quality of life for this patient population, as well as lessen their dependence on the healthcare system, reducing the associated financial burden following ICU admission