The acute psychobiological impact of the intensive care experience on relatives

Figures & data

Table 1. Medians (M) and interquartile range (IQR) for psychosocial assessments (N = 5).

Measure/subscale	M	IQR
Coping (Brief-COPE)
Self-distraction	5.00	2.50–6.00
Active coping	4.00	4.00–6.50
Denial	2.00	2.00–3.00
Substance use	2.00	2.00–4.00
Use of emotional support	5.00	4.50–6.50
Use of instrumental support	6.00	3.50–7.00
Behavioural disengagement	2.00	2.00–2.50
Venting	3.00	2.00–4.00
Positive reframing	5.00	4.50–6.00
Planning	6.00	5.00–7.00
Humour	2.00	2.00–3.50
Acceptance	7.00	5.50–8.00
Religion	3.00	2.00–6.50
Self-blame	4.00	3.00–6.00
Emotion (HADS)
Anxiety	7.00	5.50–14.50
Depression	9.00	5.00–11.00
Post-traumatic stress symptoms (IES)
Intrusion	15.00	8.00–15.00
Avoidance	8.00	5.50–17.50
Total	23.00	15.50–31.00
Social support (SSM)
Network	13.00	10.50–19.00
Quality/closeness	60.00	45.00–78.50

Table 2. Median and interquartile range (IQR) for salivary cortisol across the day (ng/ml).

Time of cortisol sample	Median	IQR
Awakening	2.31	2.15–7.02
Mid-day	1.25	.69–1.70
6 pm	.68	.39–1.00
9 pm	.40	.36–.54

Table 3. Participant quotes by theme.

Theme	Participant quote
1. The ICU environment	I didn’t know where I was going to park … where to go … when I pulled in the main entrance and … I’m like (sigh) ‘I really don’t know what I’m going to do here’. (R4)
	… unless you’re in the know you think there’s something wrong. … there’s another one (equipment) it’s called, always on, and it was flashing red and it was making a noise and it had ‘M(fib)’, and I thought ‘I don’t understand what does that mean?’ … to me if it’s red there’s something wrong. (R2)
	… it was nice to be told before what to expect ’cos I think it might’ve been a bit of a shock otherwise … (R3)
	… this is the second time that we’ve done this because our elder daughter four years ago was involved in a very serious car accident and uh, we spent three days just sat in that ICU. (R6)
	I mean, if you see it on TV, I suppose you, you know, like Casualty and that all on TV, but when it affects someone that, a loved one, you’re aware that it’s different. (R2^1)
2. Emotional responses	Panic and worry, and um … worried that I might be too late to be here … (R1)
	I was concerned for my daughter, but I was angry as well that it actually got to this stage. (R4)
	… all I can do is take it a day at a time at the moment, I’m just concentrating on just doing what I can, … I say, ‘taking it a step as a time’. (R3)
3. Family relationships	Um, I was (close to my Dad) as a young child but not, not so much now, but I think that’s made it a bit harder as well, that you, feel like you haven’t spent enough time … (R1)
	I don’t think my mum is very independent, and I worry that if my dad doesn’t get better then she, uh, will find it really difficult. (R1^1)
4. Support	They’ve been very informative of all what’s been going on and you know why they’re doing it, and why they need to do certain things. I think that’s helped a lot to, to understand what’s going on. (R4)
	They (staff) had a few more procedures to do and then you can see her in uh, around about five minutes, and then twenty-five minutes later we were still waiting. …. It seemed like hours. … Even if someone has just popped their head around the door and said the um, the team are still with her everything’s sort of coming on and it’s going to be a bit longer, but no, it’s just, they just left you. (R6)
	We’ve got a good family and friends around us and you know everybody’s saying ‘can we do this, can we do that, you know, what do you need?’ (R4^1)
	I’ve just said (to employer) that my daughter’s very ill and my wife and daughter need support and that’s it. (R4^2)