A period in intensive care is known to negatively affect patients’ long term physical, cognitive and psychiatric health, in what’s known as post-intensive care syndrome (PICS). Researchers from the University of Oxford sought to reveal the impact of an ICU stay on patients’ mental health by surveying UK ICU survivors 3 and 12 months after discharge. Dr Rob Hatch, co-author of the study published in Critical Care, describes their findings. After being treated for a critical illness in the ICU, anxiety, depression and PTSD are very common and often complex when they occur. The Intensive Care Outcomes Network (ICON) study, published in Critical Care, is the largest multi-center study of post critical illness Health Related Quality of Life and psychopathology (anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder – PTSD) conducted in post ICU survivors in the UK to date.

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