ICU Psychosis
(Intensive Care Unit Psychosis)
Medical Author: Maureen Welker, MSN, NPc, CCRN
Medical Editor: William C. Shiel, Jr., MD, FACP, FACR
What is ICU psychosis?
ICU psychosis is a disorder in which patients in an intensive care unit (ICU)
or a similar setting experience a cluster of serious psychiatric symptoms.
Another term that may be used interchangeably for ICU psychosis is ICU syndrome. ICU psychosis is also a form of delirium, or acute brain failure.
What causes ICU psychosis?
Environmental Causes
- Sensory deprivation: A patient being put in a room that often has no
windows, and is away from family, friends, and all that is familiar and
comforting.
- Sleep disturbance and deprivation: The constant disturbance and noise
with the hospital staff coming at all hours to check vital signs, give medications, etc.
- Continuous light levels: Continuous disruption of the normal biorhythms with
lights on continually (no reference to day or night).
- Stress: Patients in an ICU frequently feel the almost total loss of control over
their life.
- Lack of orientation: A patient's loss of time and date.
- Medical monitoring: The continuous monitoring of the patient's vital signs, and
the noise monitoring devices
produce can be disturbing and create sensory overload.
Medical Causes
- Pain which may not be adequately controlled in an ICU
- Critical illness: The pathophysiology of the disease, illness or traumatic event
- the stress on the body during an illness can cause a variety of symptoms.
- Medication (drug) reaction or side effects: The administration of
medications typically given to the patient in the hospital setting that
they have not taken before.
- Infection creating
fever and toxins in the body.
- Cumulative analgesia (the inability to feel pain while still
conscious)
Next: What are the symptoms of ICU psychosis? »
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