Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptom Clusters in Surrogate Decision Makers of Patients Experiencing Chronic Critical Illness

Symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are common among surrogate decision makers of patients with chronic critical illness (CCI). PTSD symptoms can be categorized into clusters including intrusion, avoidance, and hyperarousal, each of which has been associated with distinct outcomes and treatment responses. Our objective was to determine which symptom cluster was predominant among surrogates of patients with CCI. DESIGN: Secondary analysis of data from a clinical trial of a communication intervention. SETTING: The original trial was conducted in medical intensive care units at three tertiary-care centers and one community hospital. PATIENTS: Patients with CCI (≥7 d of mechanical ventilation and not expected to die or to be weaned from the ventilator in the subsequent 72 hr) and their surrogates. INTERVENTIONS: None. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Surrogate PTSD symptoms were measured 90 days after onset of patient CCI using the Impact of Events Scale-Revised (IES-R). The IES-R includes a total score (range, 0–88, higher scores indicate severe symptoms) as well as three subscales that assess intrusion, avoidance, and hyperarousal (range of intrusion and avoidance scores 0–32 and range of hyperarousal score 0–24). Intrusion symptoms were most severe (mean score, 10.3; 95% CI, 9.3–11.2), followed by avoidance (mean score, 8.0; 95% CI, 7.2–8.8). Hyperarousal symptoms were lowest (mean score, 5.1; 95% CI, 4.5–5.7). In a multivariable linear regression model, we found that surrogates of patients who died had higher odds of intrusion (β, 5.52; p < 0.0001) and avoidance (β, 3.29; p = 0.001) symptoms than surrogates of patients who lived, even after adjusting for baseline symptoms of anxiety and depression. Patient death was not associated with hyperarousal symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: Intrusive thoughts are the most severe PTSD symptom in surrogates of patients experiencing CCI, with intensified symptoms among surrogates of patients who died. These results have the potential to inform tailored treatment strategies to reduce PTSD symptoms in this population.