Recently has been published Intensive Care Medicine as Open Access the original Development of an ICU discharge instrument predicting psychological morbidity: a multinational study.

As you know, one of three ICU survivors has the psychological PICS components depression, post-traumatic stress (PTS) and anxiety. The aim of this study was to develop a screening instrument for use at ICU discharge, in order to assess individual patients’ risk for psychological problems three months post-ICU. A prospective cohort study was conducted in ten ICU from Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands.

The primary outcome was psychological problems three months after discharge from the ICU, assessed with the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) as ≥ 11 and the Post-Traumatic Stress Symptoms Checklist-14 (PTSS14) as >45 .

572 patients were included, 20% with diagnosed post-ICU psychological problems. From 18 potential risk factors, four of them were included in the final predictive model after statistical analysis: symptoms of depression, traumatic memories, lack of social support and age. Its predictive value was 76%, being a simple and useful bedside tool that allows to identify patients at risk and their psychological follow-up.

In summary, they have developed a screening tool to predict the psychological morbidity that is also free and available online. Thanks to this, this group of patients will be able to be detected early to implement the corresponding actions.

We must continue caring for the invisible, to get better results that make the difference in people experience.