IU
Intensive care unit (ICU) survivors, growing in number as clinicians and medical technology save more lives, are psychologically as well as medically fragile. The first study to examine antidepressant use and depressive symptoms after an ICU stay, has found that even if prescribed antidepressants, a significant percentage—about a third—had symptoms of depression at the time of their initial visit to a clinic specially designed for ICU survivors. Young ICU survivors and African American ICU survivors were at the highest risk for depression.The new study of depression risk profiles of ICU survivors, conducted by Indiana University Center for Aging Research and IU Center for Health Innovation and Implementation Science clinician-researchers, is published in the Journal of Hospital Medicine.
In the study, 204 racially diverse ICU survivors, 18 years or older, were screened for depressive symptoms with a standard depression test on an initial visit to the Eskenazi Health Critical Care Recovery Center (CCRC) prior to any treatment in the CCRC. Young age was found to be a risk factor for post-ICU depression whether the ICU survivor was being treated for depression or not. African Americans who had been prescribed antidepressants were also found to be at increased risk of depression.
“Now that we have determined that in addition to being young, being African American imparts higher risk of depression for ICU survivors, the next step will be to determine the underlying reasons for this elevated risk,” said study first author Sophia Wang, MD, a Center for Health Innovation and Implementation Science researcher and IU School of Medicine assistant professor of clinical psychiatry. “Why are younger ICU survivors more vulnerable to depression? What genetic and environmental factors are causing a lower likelihood of response to antidepressants in African Americans? Once we know the answers to these questions we can begin to counter the problems and more effectively treat the depression in …
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