Intensive Care Patients Need Psychological Help As Well As Physical

KYW's Medical Reports Sponsored By Independence Blue Cross

By Dr. Brian McDonough, Medical Editor

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- For someone like me, who continues to see patients in the office as well as in the hospital, the admission of my patients to the Intensive Care Unit is a time when I rely on specialists with expertise in some of the most dramatic interventions modern medicine has developed.

To be admitted to the ICU in today's medical world a patient needs to be very sick so it is not unusual to have care provided by intensivists, cardiologists, pulmonologists and all sorts of specialists. But one specialty that has been largely ignored in these settings may be needed: psychiatrists or at the very least family physicians with psychiatric training.

According to a report in Critical Care Medicine, intensive care patients who survive life threatening illnesses remain at high risk for persistent bouts of depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder throughout their stay and even months after leaving the hospital. Those at highest risk: those who are young, female, and jobless.