Predicting post-traumatic stress disorder in relatives of critically ill patients

Symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) affect up to a third of relatives of ICU patients. This review updates the epidemiology, risk factors, and emphasizes the importance of PTSD prevention to mitigate long-term impact on family members. It also sheds light on the latest artificial intelligence-based approaches attempting to predict PTSD and the numerous challenges they face before reaching clinical application.

Recent literature confirms that one third of relatives of ICU patients present significant PTSD-related symptoms at least 3  months after ICU discharge. A vast majority of risk factors associated with PTSD are non modifiable demographic characteristics, but some are modifiable and accessible to targeted interventions that aim to enhance the overall quality of families' experiences in the ICU. Recent research attempts to develop models to accurately predict family PTSD based on easily accessible data at the time of ICU discharge.

Relatives of ICU patients are at high risk of developing PTSD in the aftermath of an ICU stay. Accurate prediction of PTSD in relatives using artificial intelligence-based prediction systems could help stratify relatives at high risk, allowing timely management to mitigate its long-term impact. Beyond classification metrics benchmarks , further research is required to assess these algorithms in terms of clinical relevance, risk of bias and clinician adoption.