Post-traumatic stress symptoms six months after ICU admission with COVID-19: Prospective observational study

Abstract

Aims and Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of post- traumatic stress symptoms, and to identify possible predictive factors in Norwegian intensive care unit survivors, 6 months after admission to the intensive care unit with COVID- 19. Background: The SARS CoV-2 virus causing COVID-19 has spread worldwide since it was declared a pandemic in March 2020. The most severely ill patients have been treated in the intensive care due to acute respiratory failure and also acute respira- tory distress syndrome. It is well documented that these severe conditions can lead to complex and long-lasting symptoms, such as psychological distress, and was, there- fore, investigated for the specific COVID-19 population. Design: Prospective observational study. Methods: Clinical data and patient reported outcome measures were collected by the Norwegian Intensive Care and Pandemic Registry and by the study group 6 months after admission to an intensive care unit. Results: Among 222 COVID-19 patients admitted to Norwegian intensive care units between 10 March and 6 July 2020, 175 survived. The study sample consisted of 131 patients who responded to at least one patient reported outcome measure at 6 months following admission. The primary outcome was self-reported post-traumatic stress symptoms, using the Impact of Event Scale-6 (n = 89). Of those, 22.5% reported post-traumatic stress symptoms 6 months after admission. Female gender, younger age and having a high respiratory rate at admission were statistically significant pre- dictive factors for reporting post-traumatic stress symptoms. Conclusions: The result is in accordance with previously published research with com- parable populations, suggesting that for many COVID-19 survivors psychological dis- tress is a part of the post-acute sequelae. Results from the present study should be replicated in larger datasets. Relevance to Clinical Practice: This project provides important insight to post-acute sequelae after COVID-19 that patients may experience after critical illness.