Prevalence and risk factors for post‐traumatic stress disorder in Japanese relatives of out‐of‐hospital cardiac arrest patients after receiving a pamphlet concerning the grieving process

AIM: To investigate the prospective frequency of post‐traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among relatives of sudden death patients following provision of a pamphlet explaining the stages of the complicated grief process and self‐regulating techniques. METHODS: From May 2017 to February 2018, we prospectively and consecutively provided a pamphlet to relatives of out‐of‐hospital sudden cardiac arrest victims who failed to obtain spontaneous circulation. We investigated the psychiatric status of the bereaved relatives using the Impact of Event Scale – Revised (IES‐R). An IES‐R score over 24 was defined as PTSD. RESULTS: Fifty‐four relatives of the 54 dead patients (victims) provided permission of entry to this research. All subjects and victims were Japanese. Among them, 24 subjects had an IES‐R score of 0 and 5 (9.3%) had PTSD approximately 1 month after their bereavement. There were no relatives who received spontaneous psychiatric treatment. The IES‐R scores for non‐medical cardiac arrest, death inquests, and parent variables were significantly higher compared with medical cardiac arrest, no inquest, and no parent, respectively. The IES‐R scores in those who were a child of the victim were significantly lower than in those who were not. CONCLUSION: The present study showed that the frequency of PTSD was 9.3% at 1 month following bereavement among Japanese relatives of sudden death victims after an intervention. This frequency was minimal compared with previous reports.