The Psychological Impact on Relatives of Critically Ill Patients: The Influence of Visiting Hours

OBJECTIVES: To identify the psychologic impact of admission to the ICU on the relatives of critically ill patients, the influence of coping, and the factors involved. DESIGN: We performed a cohort study with repeated measures evaluation using descriptive and comparative bivariate and multivariate analyses. SETTINGS: An adult ICU of a third-level complexity hospital. PATIENTS: The family members of patients (maximum of three per patient) staying longer than 3 days. INTERVENTIONS: Not applicable. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Psychologic impact was assessed using two subgroups of psychologic distress: anxiety (by the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory) and depression (by the Beck Depression Inventory). Satisfaction and coping were assessed by the Critical Care Family Needs Inventory and the Brief Coping Orientations to Problems Experienced Inventory, respectively. We included 104 family members; psychologic distress was high at admission (72% had anxiety, 45% had depression, and 42% had both) but decreased at discharge (34% had anxiety, 23% had depression, and 21% had both). The risk factors related to psychologic impact were severity (anxiety: Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation score ≥ 18 points: relative risk [RR], 2; 95% CI, 1–4; p = 0.03), invasive mechanical ventilation (anxiety: RR, 1.9; 95% CI, 1–3.6; p = 0.04), recent psychotropic medication use by relatives (depression: RR, 1.6; 95% CI, 1–2.9; p = 0.05), a restrictive visiting policy (anxiety: RR, 5.7; 95% CI, 2–10.4; p = 0.002), no emotion-focused coping strategy (anxiety: strategy < 11 points, RR, 6.1; 95% CI, 1.2–52; p = 0.01), and functional impairment (depression: Barthel index ≤ 60 points, RR, 7.4; 95% CI, 1.7–26.3; p = 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: The psychologic impact from admission to the ICU on family members is high. Visiting hours is the main modifiable factor to reduce the impact.