Occurrence and characteristics of pain after ICU discharge: A longitudinal study

Chronic pain in ICU survivors: Potential risk factors and relationship with post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms and health related quality of life

OBJECTIVES

To identify patient characteristics and clinical factors during ICU hospitalization potentially associated with chronic pain occurrence, and to determine its relationship with symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) at three time points after ICU discharge.

METHODS

Adult ICU survivors were enrolled in a prospective, repeated measures study. The study was carried out in two phases. Phase I was conducted during the first 5 days of survivors' ICU hospitalization where patient characteristics and clinical data were collected. Phase II was conducted via telephone interviews after 3 (T1), 6 (T2) and 12 (T3) months post-ICU discharge, where pain, PTSD-related symptoms, and HRQoL were assessed with the Numeric Rating Scale (NRS), Davidson Trauma Scale (DTS), and 36-Item Short Form Survey version 2 (SF-36v2), respectively.

RESULTS

Data from 59 survivors were analysed, 69.5% of whom were males. The sample's mean age was 52.7 (SD 18.9) years and 62.7% of them reported NRS>3 at T1, indicating chronic pain. After adjusting for sex, age, and APACHE II score, chronic pain was significantly associated with: (a) length of stay in the ICU (OR=1.42; 95%CI: 1.03-1.95; p=0.030) and (b) clinically relevant symptoms of PTSD at T1 (OR=10.04; 95%CI: 2.44-41.24; p=0.001) and T2 (OR=11.90; 95%CI: 1.28-110.49; p=0.029). Lower SF-36v2 scores in all domains at T1, several domains at T2, and two domains at T3 were significantly associated with CP occurrence.

CONCLUSIONS

Of the patient characteristics and clinical factors analysed, only longer length of stay in ICU was significantly associated with higher odds of chronic pain occurrence, which in turn was linked to PTSD-related symptoms and lower HRQoL after ICU discharge.

IMPLICATIONS FOR CLINICAL PRACTICE

Clinical interventions aimed at optimizing ICU length of stay, such as the implementation of early mobility programs and multidisciplinary rehabilitation, may support prevention of chronic pain occurrence and improve long-term outcomes.

Mobile Health App and Web Platform (eDOL) for Medical Follow-Up of Patients With Chronic Pain: Cohort Study Involving the French eDOL National Cohort After 1 Year

BACKGROUND

Chronic pain affects approximately 30% of the general population, severely degrades quality of life and professional life, and leads to additional health care costs. Moreover, the medical follow-up of patients with chronic pain remains complex and provides only fragmentary data on painful daily experiences. This situation makes the management of patients with chronic pain less than optimal and may partly explain the lack of effectiveness of current therapies. Real-life monitoring of subjective and objective markers of chronic pain using mobile health (mHealth) programs could better characterize patients, chronic pain, pain medications, and daily impact to help medical management.

OBJECTIVE

This cohort study aimed to assess the ability of our mHealth tool (eDOL) to collect extensive real-life medical data from chronic pain patients after 1 year of use. The data collected in this way would provide new epidemiological and pathophysiological data on chronic pain.

METHODS

A French national cohort of patients with chronic pain treated at 18 pain clinics has been established and followed up using mHealth tools. This cohort makes it possible to collect the determinants and repercussions of chronic pain and their evolutions in a real-life context, taking into account all environmental events likely to influence chronic pain. The patients were asked to complete several questionnaires, body schemes, and weekly meters, and were able to interact with a chatbot and use educational modules on chronic pain. Physicians could monitor their patients' progress in real time via an online platform.

RESULTS

The cohort study included 1427 patients and analyzed 1178 patients. The eDOL tool was able to collect various sociodemographic data; specific data for characterizing pain disorders, including body scheme; data on comorbidities related to chronic pain and its psychological and overall impact on patients' quality of life; data on drug and nondrug therapeutics and their benefit-to-risk ratio; and medical or treatment history. Among the patients completing weekly meters, 49.4% (497/1007) continued to complete them after 3 months of follow-up, and the proportion stabilized at 39.3% (108/275) after 12 months of follow-up. Overall, despite a fairly high attrition rate over the follow-up period, the eDOL tool collected extensive data. This amount of data will increase over time and provide a significant volume of health data of interest for future research involving the epidemiology, care pathways, trajectories, medical management, sociodemographic characteristics, and other aspects of patients with chronic pain.

CONCLUSIONS

This work demonstrates that the mHealth tool eDOL is able to generate a considerable volume of data concerning the determinants and repercussions of chronic pain and their evolutions in a real-life context. The eDOL tool can incorporate numerous parameters to ensure the detailed characterization of patients with chronic pain for future research and pain management.

TRIAL REGISTRATION

ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04880096; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04880096.

Three patterns of symptom communication between patients and clinicians in the intensive care unit: A fieldwork study

AIM

To describe different patterns of communication aimed at preventing, identifying and managing symptoms between mechanically ventilated patients and clinicians in the intensive care unit.

DESIGN

We conducted a fieldwork study with triangulation of participant observation and individual interviews.

METHODS

Participant observation of nine patients and 50 clinicians: nurses, physiotherapists and physicians. Subsequent individual face-to-face interviews with nine of the clinicians, and six of the patients after they had regained their ability to speak and breathe spontaneously, were fully alert and felt well enough to sit through the interview.

FINDINGS

Symptom communication was found to be an integral part of patient care. We identified three communication patterns: (1) proactive symptom communication, (2) reactive symptom communication and (3) lack of symptom communication. The three patterns co-existed in the cases and the first two complemented each other. The third pattern represents inadequate management of symptom distress.

CONCLUSION

Recognition of symptoms in non-speaking intensive care patients is an important skill for clinicians. Our study uncovered three patterns of symptom communication, two of which promoted symptom management. The third pattern suggested that clinicians did not always acknowledge the symptom distress.

IMPLICATIONS FOR PATIENT CARE

Proactive and reactive symptom assessment of non-speaking patients require patient verification when possible. Improved symptom prevention, identification and management require a combination of sound clinical judgement and attentiveness towards symptoms, implementation and use of relevant assessment tools, and implementation and skill building in augmentative and alternative communication.

IMPACT

This study addressed the challenges of symptom communication between mechanically ventilated patients and clinicians in the intensive care unit. Our findings may have an impact on patients and clinicians concerned with symptom management in intensive care units.

REPORTING METHOD

We used the consolidated criteria for reporting qualitative research.

PATIENT CONTRIBUTION

A user representative was involved in the design of the study.