[Psychiatric disorders in intensive care--part three: psychic reactions, affective and anxiety disorders]

Perpetual noise, pain, disturbed day-night-cycle, the inability to talk and the difficulty, especially during weaning, to differentiate alertness from sleep and dream from reality are some of the burdens ICU patients are suffering from. Additional sedation and potential sedation gaps plus the medical treatment itself put strain on critically ill humans. Those external stimuli partly cannot be handled well by the patients. Some of these factors or a combination of them, combined with a predisposition and/or insufficient coping mechanisms can result in a wide range of psychiatric disorders. Often psychiatric symptoms appear unspecific and difficult to categorize. Firstly some psychopathological cardinal symptoms are described and potential differential diagnoses are mentioned. After that the following article focuses on sleep, adjustment, depressive and the spectrum of anxiety disorders (especially generalized anxiety disorders, panic disorders, acute stress disorder (ASD) and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)). The article provides prevalences, etiology and risk factors as well as symptomatology, diagnostics and therapeutic options. Those disorders can be diagnosed in ICU but also after transferring to general ward. In our own experience the transfer period is a vulnerable phase for psychopathologic symptoms. As apart from the individual suffering the course of the somatic disease as well as the rehabilitation process are impaired and the disorders have a tendency to have a chronic course, close and early collaboration of ICU physicians and psychiatrists is mandatory.