ORLANDO, Fla. (Ivanhoe Newswire) – From heart attacks and strokes to COVID and car accidents – more than five million people will be admitted into intensive care units across the country this year. According to the CDC, that’s about one in every 35 adults. The average stay is three days, but for seniors, that number grows to six days. And although the nurses and doctors do everything they can to save people, they can’t do anything about the feelings and trauma their patients experience after leaving a life-threatening situation. Now, researchers are working to help people overcome their fears of PTSD in ICU.
What started out as an outpatient procedure for a cyst removal for Cheryl Thompson turned into a near death experience.
“I had two collapsed lungs, double pneumonia, an infection running through my body, and my heart had stopped,” Thompson painfully recalls.
Thompson survived but the trauma she experienced during her 10 days in the ICU was life altering.
Critical care nurse and University of Central Florida assistant professor, Brian Peach, PhD, RN, CCRN, is leading a study on patients who endure post intensive care syndrome, known as PICS. Studies show as many as 80 percent of patients who are in intensive care suffer from PTSD. A third of them are unable to go back to work in the first year after their hospitalization.
A virtual reality headset is helping patients cope with exposure therapy. Not only does it transport patients into the ICU with the sights and sounds, but they also use smells to help them overcome their fears. Researchers can physically see the distress in their patients.
“We can see that they get sweaty, we can see that they clench their jaw,” explains UCF Restores clinician, Quentin Smith, MSW, LCSW.
The sound of lawnmowers and weedwhackers reminded Thompson of her hospital bed inflating.
“I couldn’t let myself fall asleep because I was so terrified that if I slept I would wake up with a tube in my throat,” she tells Ivanhoe.
After 10 sessions over a two-week period, Thompson felt her anxiety slip away.
“It’s just been so different and I am so much better than I was,” she says with relief.
ICU patients usually experience these triggers immediately after going home from the hospital, and they persist months and even years later. Virtual reality exposure therapy has been proven highly successful with first responders, military personnel, and veterans. Studies show they overcome PTSD at much higher rates than the national standard. PTSD in ICU
Contributors to this news report include: Marsha Lewis, Producer; Roque Correa, Videographer & Editor.
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Source:
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/hospital.htm
MEDICAL BREAKTHROUGHS
RESEARCH SUMMARY
TOPIC: VR FOR PTSD FROM HOSPITAL ICU
REPORT: MB #5227
BACKGROUND: Trauma patients admitted into ICUs require immediate and specialized care due to the severity of their injuries. The ICU plays a critical role in stabilizing and managing these patients, providing constant monitoring, life-saving interventions, and multidisciplinary care. Trauma injuries are the leading cause of death in people up to age 45 and account for 150,000 deaths and over 3 million non death injuries every year. For those who do survive, the effects trauma patients face after leaving the hospital are often life changing. Those who experience trauma related events and injuries are at a much higher risk to experience PTSD, depression, and suicide ideation.
(Sources: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/hospital.htm
https://www.bswhealth.com/blog/expect-trauma-icu
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4143496/)
DIAGNOSING: Diagnosing trauma patients in the intensive care unit (ICU) involves a systematic and comprehensive approach to assess and identify the extent of injuries sustained. The first step in diagnosing and trauma assessment begins prior to the patient’s arrival to the hospital. After receiving information on the patient’s state, the trauma team informs physicians. After primary and secondary surveys take place, imaging studies, laboratory tests, and specialized assessments take place. After hospital care, trauma incidents often make patients feel at war with the brain. Diagnosing trauma patients after physical incidents take place involves care from psychiatrists and mental health professionals.
(Sources: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK555913/
NEW TECHNOLOGY: Researchers at University of Central Florida are leading a study on a virtual reality headset that can be worn by trauma patients as an exposure therapy. This allows patients to be transported back to the ICU and encounter all senses they endured after the traumatic incident took place. They are able to smell, hear, and see all senses in attempt to overcome their fears. They plan to customize each patients headset to the exact setting that they encountered.
FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THIS REPORT, PLEASE CONTACT:
Chad Binette
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