June 10, 2014 – Diary Help

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ANCHOR LEAD:  CAN THE HIGH RATE OF POST TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER AFTER AN ICU STAY BE HELPED? ELIZABETH TRACEY REPORTS

No one chooses a stay in the intensive care unit, and even after surviving such an ordeal, depression, muscle weakness, and post-traumatic stress disorder are common.  Now a Johns Hopkins initiative led by Joe Bienvenu, a psychiatrist and expert in critical illness using diaries may help.

BIENVENU: We’re trying to help our patients as they are recovering from their critical illness to also process what happened to them while they were critically ill. We want them to understand what happened, why they may not remember things that their family members remember, what kind of illness did they have, was it real? Because lots of patients have these memories of things that didn’t happen, like being tortured or imprisoned.  It’s understandable when you think about the fact that during the time of the critical illness their brains were not functioning correctly.  :31

A diary kept by medical personnel and families provides an accurate record of ICU events.  At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.