Psychologic Distress and Quality of Life After ICU Treatment for Coronavirus Disease 2019: A Multicenter,...

To quantify short- and long-term psychologic distress, that is, symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder, anxiety, and depression, and the health-related quality of life in coronavirus disease 2019 ICU survivors.

A prospective, observational cohort study.

Postcoronavirus disease 2019 clinics of three hospitals in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

Adult patients admitted for coronavirus disease 2019 to the ICU, who visited the postcoronavirus disease 2019 follow-up clinic.

The primary outcomes were psychologic distress and overall and mental health-related quality of life, assessed using the Impact of Event Scale-Revised, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, Short-Form 36, and European Quality of Life 5D, 6 weeks, 3 months, and 6 months post hospital discharge. Second, we compared 3-month psychologic and mental health-related quality of life outcomes with a historical critical illness survivor cohort and overall and mental health-related quality of life with the Dutch population. We included 118 patients with a median age of 61 years (95% range, 36-77 yr) of whom 79 (68%) were male. At 6 weeks, 13 patients (23%) reported psychologic distress, copresence of probable psychiatric disorders was common, and no decline in psychologic distress was observed throughout follow-up. Coronavirus disease 2019 patients tend to suffer less from posttraumatic stress disorder and reported less severe symptoms of anxiety (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale Anxiety Score: 3 [0-17] vs 5 [0-16]; estimated mean difference 2.3 [95% CI, 0.0-4.7]; p = 0.05) and depression (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale Depression Score: 3 [0-15] vs 5 [0-16]; estimated mean difference 2.4 [95% CI, 0.1-2.4]; p = 0.04) than the historical critical illness cohort. Overall and mental health-related quality of life increased over time. Coronavirus disease 2019 ICU survivors reported better mental health-related quality of life than our historical cohort, but overall and mental health-related quality of life was still poorer than the Dutch population.

Psychologic distress was common in coronavirus disease 2019 ICU survivors and remained similar until 6 months after hospital discharge. Health-related quality of life increased over time and was higher than in a historical cohort, but was lower than in the Dutch population. Our findings highlight that coronavirus disease 2019 ICU survivors should be monitored after ICU treatment to detect possible psychologic distress.