[Psychiatric complications in patients under intensive care]

Ten adult patients with psychiatric disorders in the intensive care ward were examined. The length of stay varied from one week to four months and mechanical ventilation was necessary for all patients. Their experience of intensive care and their psychosensorial problems were as follows: temperospatial disorientation, perturbation of the sense of posture, hallucinations which could go as far as oneiric delirium, anguish and symptoms of depression. No psychotic syndrome, literraly speaking, was observed objectively. In the monthes that followed the stay under intensive care many patients presented important psychosomatic disorders. Organic factors are responsible for these complications, though the environment of the intensive care could induce a marked disafferentation. An effort by the attending staff, aimed at orientating or "reafferenting" these patients, could reduce these problems.