Study reviews COVID-related hospital visitation limits and family stress


Date:
April 25, 2022
Source:
University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus
Summary:
Efforts by hospitals to protect people from COVID-19 by restricting
them from visiting family members in ICUs may have contributed to
a significant increase in stress-related disorders, according to
new research. The study reports that nearly two-thirds of those
restricted from visiting were suffering from stress-related
disorders three months after their family member was hospitalized.



FULL STORY ========================================================================== Efforts by hospitals to protect people from COVID-19 by restricting
them from visiting family members in ICUs may have contributed to a
significant increase in stress-related disorders, according to a study
led by University of Colorado School of Medicine researchers.


==========================================================================
The study, published today in JAMA Internal Medicine, reports that
nearly two- thirds of those restricted from visiting were suffering
from stress-related disorders three months after their family member
was hospitalized.

"Our findings suggest that visitation restrictions may have inadvertently contributed to a secondary public health crisis, an epidemic of
stress-related disorders among family members of ICU patients," says
Timothy Amass, MD, ScM, assistant professor of medicine at the CU School
of Medicine and first author of the article.

Visitation restrictions at hospitals were implemented to prevent the
spread of an emerging highly infectious virus and deadly disease at a
time when personal protective equipment was in short supply. Hospital
and public health officials were also concerned about having enough
capacity to provide care.

Amass and his co-authors found that the consequences of those restrictions
had an enduring effect on many of the people who weren't allowed
to visit their hospitalized family members. According to the study,
having a family member admitted to the ICU with COVID-19 was associated
with high levels of symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, such as depression and anxiety.

The study authors surveyed people three months after their family member
was hospitalized, finding that 64% of the study participants recorded
high scores on tests that measure symptoms of post-traumatic stress
disorder. That's more than double from pre-pandemic levels, when about
30% of family members of ICU patients reported stress-related disorders.

To conduct their study, Amass and his colleagues surveyed 330 family
members three months after their family members were admitted to the
ICU with COVID-19.

Those patients were admitted between Feb. 1 and July 31, 2020, in
the early days of the pandemic, at eight academic-affiliated and four community-based hospitals in Colorado, Washington, Louisiana, New York,
and Massachusetts.

The study authors said restrictions may have fostered distrust between patients' family members and health care providers. They write, "As the
COVID- 19 pandemic continues to challenge the ability of family members
to build bedside relationships with clinicians, this loss of trust may translate into an increase in stress-related disorders." One study
participant who was surveyed described their painful experience:
"They called us and said, 'Do you want us to pull the plug?'. . . I
said how did it go from coming home to pulling the plug? . . . they say
that her mouth was moving and her eyes was moving but they said she was
dead. . . .so, they went on and pulled the plug anyway." Study authors
added that additional studies would be needed to determine any links
between visitation restriction policies and factors that caused distrust
among family members.

The study lists 41 co-authors. In addition to Amass, authors affiliated
with the CU School of Medicine are Hope Cruse; Ying Jin; Trevor Lane,
MD; Marc Moss, MD; Ryan Peterson, PhD; Sarah Rhoads, MD; Jin Huang;
and Stephanie Yu.


========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by University_of_Colorado_Anschutz_Medical_Campus. Original written by Mark
Couch. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Timothy Amass, Lauren Jodi Van Scoy, May Hua, Melanie Ambler,
Priscilla
Armstrong, Matthew R. Baldwin, Rachelle Bernacki, Mansoor
D. Burhani, Jennifer Chiurco, Zara Cooper, Hope Cruse, Nicholas
Csikesz, Ruth A.

Engelberg, Laura D. Fonseca, Karin Halvorson, Rachel Hammer,
Joanna Heywood, Sarah Hochendoner Duda, Jin Huang, Ying Jin,
Laura Johnson, Masami Tabata-Kelly, Emma Kerr, Trevor Lane,
Melissa Lee, Keely Likosky, Donald McGuirl, Tijana Milinic, Marc
Moss, Elizabeth Nielsen, Ryan Peterson, Sara J. Puckey, Olivia
Rea, Sarah Rhoads, Christina Sheu, Wendy Tong, Pamela D. Witt,
James Wykowski, Stephanie Yu, Renee D. Stapleton, J. Randall
Curtis. Stress-Related Disorders of Family Members of Patients
Admitted to the Intensive Care Unit With COVID-19. JAMA Internal
Medicine, 2022; DOI: 10.1001/jamainternmed.2022.1118 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/04/220425135922.htm

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