Psychotropic medication use in former ICU patients with mental health problems: A prospective observational follow-up study

PURPOSE: To describe the extent to which patients with mental health problems after admission to an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) initiate and use psychotropic medication.

METHODS: All adult patients who stayed in the ICU of the University Medical Center Utrecht for 48 h or more between 2013 and 2017, alive after 1 year and not admitted to the ICU with brain injury, were eligible. Questionnaires were used to identify mental health problems, depression, anxiety and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and psychotropic medication use.

RESULTS: Of the 1328 former ICU patients, 24.3% (n = 323) had developed any of the mental health problems. Of this group, 29.7% (n = 96) used psychotropic medication one year after discharge versus the 10.6% (n = 107) of patients without these problems (OR 3.17, 95% CI 2.29-4.38). They were further 4.33 (95% CI 2.62-7.16) times more likely to initiate psychotropic medication (18.7% vs 4.8%) after ICU admission. Similar patterns were observed for individual groups of psychotropics: antidepressants, antipsychotics and benzodiazepines.

DISCUSSION: Former ICU patients with mental health problems were almost four times more likely to use psychotropic medication than former ICU patients without these problems. Future research should investigate whether mental health problems are properly diagnosed and treated in former ICU patients.