ArticleAnnals of the American Thoracic Society2014
Recognizing, naming, and measuring a family intensive care unit syndrome.
Article in Annals of the American Thoracic Society, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 48 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
48 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 130 citations in OpenAlex.
- Implementing palliative care in the intensive care unit: a systematic review and mapping of knowledge to the implementation research logic model.Intensive care medicine · 2024Pooled it
- Identification of risk factors for post-intensive care syndrome in family members (PICS-F) among adult patients: a systematic review.Anaesthesiology intensive therapy · 2023Pooled it
- Rethinking Regret: Reappraisal Tendencies Buffer Regret for ICU Surrogates Following Patient Death.Western journal of nursing research · 2025Trial
- A psychometric evaluation of the Family Decision-Making Self-Efficacy Scale among surrogate decision-makers of the critically ill.Palliative & supportive care · 2020Trial
- Questions to improve family-staff communication in the ICU: a randomized controlled trial.Intensive care medicine · 2018Trial
- [Ethically challenging determination of treatment goals in the intensive care unit: reasons, frequency and possible solutions].Die Anaesthesiologie · 2026Review
- Improving Family-Centred Care in Intensive Care Units: Participatory Action Research to Design and Implement Changes in Nursing Care.Nursing in critical care · 2026Article
- Implementing palliative care in intensive care units: assessing processes using the normalisation process theory NoMAD instrument.Implementation science communications · 2026Article
- Evaluation of a Tablet-Based Emotion Regulation Intervention for Surrogate Decision-Makers of Patients With Critical Illness: Pilot Nonrandomized Trial.JMIR formative research · 2026Article
- Psychological symptoms, quality of life and dyadic relations in family members of intensive care survivors: a multicentre, prospective longitudinal cohort study.Annals of intensive care · 2025Article
- Understanding and addressing a 'difficult' family in ICU.Critical care (London, England) · 2025Review
- Translation and Psychometric Validation of the German Version of the Iceland-Family Perceived Support Questionnaire (ICE-FPSQ): A Cross-Sectional Study.Journal of family nursing · 2024Article
- Real emotional experience of family members of patients transported within hospital in neurosurgical intensive care unit: A descriptive qualitative study.Nursing open · 2024Article
- Anxiety and Depression Symptoms of Family Members of Intensive Care Unit Patients: A Prospective Observational Study and the Lived Experiences of the Family Members.Avicenna journal of medicine · 2023Article
- Group Concept Mapping Conceptualizes High-Quality Care for Long-Stay Pediatric Intensive Care Unit Patients and Families.The Journal of pediatrics · 2023Article
- Sociocultural Moderators of Emotion Regulation in Family Members of the Critically Ill.Western journal of nursing research · 2022Article
- Survival and Healthcare Costs with Invasive Mechanical Ventilation versus Noninvasive Ventilation in Patients with Dementia Admitted with Pneumonia and Respiratory Failure.Annals of the American Thoracic Society · 2022Article
- How doctors manage conflicts with families of critically ill patients during conversations about end-of-life decisions in neonatal, pediatric, and adult intensive care.Intensive care medicine · 2022Article
- [Ways of supporting relatives in intensive care units : Overview and update].Medizinische Klinik, Intensivmedizin und Notfallmedizin · 2022Review
- Improving Post-Injury Care: Key Family Caregiver Perspectives of Critical Illness After Injury.Critical care explorations · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Most major decisions in the intensive care unit (ICU) regarding goals of care are shared by clinicians and someone other than the patient. Multicenter clinical trials focusing on improved communication between clinicians and these surrogate decision makers have not reported consistently improved outcomes. We suggest that acquired maladaptive reasoning may contribute importantly to failure of the intervention strategies tested to date. Surrogate decision makers often suffer significant psychological morbidity in the form of stress, anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Family members in the ICU also suffer cognitive blunting and sleep deprivation. Their decision-making abilities are eroded by anticipatory grief and cognitive biases, while personal and family conflicts further impact their decision making. We propose recognizing a family ICU syndrome to describe the morbidity and associated decision-making impairment experienced by many family members of patients with acute critical illness (in the ICU) and chronic critical illness (in the long-term, acute care hospital). Research rigorously using models of compromised decision making may help elucidate both mechanisms of impairment and targets for intervention. Better quantifying compromised decision making and its relationship to poor outcomes will allow us to formulate and advance useful techniques. The use of decision aids and improving ICU design may provide benefit now and in the near future. In measuring interventions targeting cognitive barriers, clinically significant outcomes, such as time to decision, should be considered. Statistical approaches, such as survival models and rank statistic testing, will increase our power to detect differences in our interventions.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.