Occupational therapist-guided cognitive interventions in critically ill patients: a feasibility randomized controlled...

Area of Science:

• Critical Care Medicine
• Neuroscience
• Rehabilitation Therapy

Background:

• Intensive care unit (ICU) delirium is a frequent complication in critical illness.
• Management of ICU delirium typically involves a multimodal approach.
• Novel interventions are needed to improve patient outcomes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the feasibility of a new occupational therapist (OT)-guided cognitive intervention protocol for critically ill patients.
• The protocol was designed to be titrated based on patient sedation levels.
• To evaluate secondary clinical outcomes and methodological challenges.

Main Methods:

• A randomized controlled trial comparing standard care to an OT-guided cognitive intervention.
• Patients aged 18 years or older admitted to a medical/surgical ICU were enrolled.
• Feasibility was measured by the proportion of delivered cognitive interventions and goal session length.

Main Results:

• Seventy patients were enrolled, with 69 included in the final analysis.
• Eighty percent (110/137) of planned OT-guided sessions were completed.
• The intervention achieved its goal session length (mean 19.8 minutes).

Conclusions:

• The novel occupational therapist-guided cognitive intervention protocol is feasible in medical/surgical ICU settings.
• A larger randomized controlled trial is necessary to establish the protocol's impact on delirium prevalence and duration.