OBJECTIVE: Identify the incidence of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), in patients submitted to MV and analyze its relation with clinical and demographical variables, and with the presence of memories regarding intensive care unit (ICU). METHOD: It is a longitudinal prospective study, carried out in one year at an ICU of a university hospital. Evaluation occurred three months after ICU discharge during patients follow up at the ambulatory. Subjects were evaluated using the ICU memories (ICU-AMI) and the Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R) instruments. RESULTS: From the total of subjects, 68.8% were male from 18 to 79 years of age, 43.5 years old average ± 17.1. From the evaluated patients, 14.5% presented symptoms of PTSD when a cut-off score > 20 was used. For a diagnostic accuracy a ≥ 33 cut-off score was also used, and in this case, only seven patients (5.1%) showed signs of PTSD. CONCLUSION: A few patients met the criteria for the PTSD diagnosis indicating that the great majority of patients admitted at ICU show only symptomatology related to PTSD.
Stress disorders traumatic; intensive care unit; memory; amnesia
