Significant psychological impacts, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), have been associated with patients under sedation in intensive care units (ICUs). However, it remains unknown if and how sedation is related to post-ICU psychological outcomes. This literature review explores the relationships between sedation, the depth of sedation and psychological disorders. A review of exist...

The 2018 Critical Care Medicine Guidelines for Analgesia and Sedation in the ICU Good Practice Statement emphasized importance treatment of pain taking precedence over sedation. Within these guidelines, a multimodal analgesia approach is standard care ICU, which often includes initiation opioids. 1 As practice has shifted to prioritize management sedation, opioids have been administered frequen...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Appropriate use of sedatives and analgesics is essential to keep critically ill patients comfortable and to prevent prolonged mechanical ventilation time and length of stay in ICU. Aim of this study was to analyse the long-term effect of an algorithm-based individual analgesic-sedative protocol on mechanical ventilation time and ICU length of stay in critically ill patients ...

BACKGROUND In the intensive care unit (ICU), analgesia and sedation are used to improve the comfort and safety of patients undergoing intensive care therapies. However, continuous administration of sedatives prolongs the time on mechanical ventilation and ICU stay. These adverse effects can be reduced by clear definition of the goals of sedation combined with a sedation protocol. METHODS The ...

Sedation and analgesia are frequently used in the critical care unit. Pain has already been described as the “fifth vital sign,” and most people describe experiencing pain as a source of great stress during an intensive care unit (ICU) stay.(1,2) Sedation can be used to ease discomfort, to facilitate adaptation to mechanical ventilation, and to prevent self-harm.(3) However, despite its humanit...

Delirium is defined by a fluctuating level of attentiveness and has been associated with increased ICU mortality and poor cognitive outcomes in both general ICU and neurocritical care populations. Sedation use in the ICU can contribute to delirium. Limiting ICU sedation allows for the diagnosis of underlying acute neurological insults associated with delirium and leads to shorter mechanical ven...

BACKGROUND We aimed to compare the effects of nursing-implemented sedation protocol and daily interruption of sedative infusion on the duration of mechanical ventilation. METHODS Fifty patients receiving mechanical ventilation and requiring sedation in the intensive care unit (ICU) were randomly selected to receive either daily interruption of sedative infusion (Group P, n=25) or nursing-impl...