SynthesisCritical care (London, England)2019
The impact of intensive care unit diaries on patients' and relatives' outcomes: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Synthesis in Critical care (London, England), 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 51 papers, 5 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
51 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 153 citations in OpenAlex.
- Effects of psychological intervention on outcomes of critically ill patients and their families: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in medicine · 2026Pooled it
- [Prevention and treatment of long-term sequelae in critically ill patients-the responsibility of intensive care medicine].Die Anaesthesiologie · 2025Pooled it
- Care intervention on psychological outcomes among patients admitted to intensive care unit: an umbrella review of systematic reviews and meta-analyses.Systematic reviews · 2023Pooled it
- Effect of intensive care unit diary on quality of life of intensive care unit survivors and their relatives: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Nursing open · 2023Pooled it
- Exploring family members' and health care professionals' perceptions on ICU diaries: a systematic review and qualitative data synthesis.Intensive care medicine · 2021Pooled it
- A Co-Designed Post-ICU Follow-Up Pathway Is Feasible and May Be Associated With Improved Psychosocial Recovery for Patients and Their Caregivers: Outcomes From the IMPACT-ICU Single-Center Randomized Controlled Trial.Critical care explorations · 2026Trial
- Investigating the effect of psycho-educational intervention on preoperative anxiety in bariatric surgery candidates: a randomized controlled trial.BMC psychology · 2026Trial
- Effect of an intensive care unit virtual reality intervention on relatives´ mental health distress: a multicenter, randomized controlled trial.Critical care (London, England) · 2025Trial
- The effect of nurse-initiated diary intervention on posttraumatic stress disorder and recall of memories in ICU survivors: a randomized controlled trial.BMC psychiatry · 2024Trial
- Effect of protocol-based family visitation on physiological indicators in ICU patients: a randomized controlled trial.BMC anesthesiology · 2024Trial
- Family-authored ICU diaries to reduce fear in patients experiencing a cardiac arrest (FAID fear): A pilot randomized controlled trial.PloS one · 2023Trial
- "A story with gaps": An interpretative phenomenological analysis of ICU survivors' experience.PloS one · 2022Trial
- Effect of Intensive Psychological Nursing Intervention on HAMD and SF-36 Scores in Patients with Severe Liver Cancer in ICU.Journal of healthcare engineering · 2022Trial
- Feasibility and Efficacy of a Resiliency Intervention for the Prevention of Chronic Emotional Distress Among Survivor-Caregiver Dyads Admitted to the Neuroscience Intensive Care Unit: A Randomized Clinical Trial.JAMA network open · 2020Trial
- Critical care delirium: prevention, identification and management: a narrative review.Anaesthesia · 2026Review
- Anxiety and Depression Symptoms in ICU Survivors After COVID-19.Nursing in critical care · 2026Article
- Immediate Effects of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy in Children with ADHD: A Pilot Resting-State fNIRS Study.Brain sciences · 2026Article
- Article
- PICU diaries and parental PTSD symptoms-a pilot randomized controlled trial assessing feasibility and psychological outcomes.Frontiers in pediatrics · 2026Article
- Determinants of ICU memories and the impact on the development and trajectory of post-traumatic stress symptoms: a multicenter longitudinal cohort study.Intensive care medicine · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundMemory gaps in intensive care unit (ICU) survivors are associated with psychiatric disorders. The ICU diaries improve the patient's factual memory of the ICU, but it is not clear if they reduce the incidence of psychiatric disorders in patients and relatives after hospital discharge. The aim of this study is to evaluate the literature on the effect of ICU diaries for patients admitted in ICU and their relatives.
methodsTwo authors independently searched the online databases PubMed, OVID, Embase, EBSCO host, and PsycINFO from inception to July 2019. Studies were included if the intervention group (ICU diary) was compared with a group with no diaries and the sample was comprised patients ≥ 18 years old admitted in the ICU for more than 24 h and their relatives. Randomized clinical trials, observational studies, letter with original data, and abstracts were included, irrespective of the language. The search was not limited by any specific outcome. Review articles, commentaries, editorials, and studies without a control group were excluded. Structured tools were used to assess the methodological quality ("Risk Of Bias In Non-randomized Studies of Interventions (ROBINS-I)" for cohort studies and the "Cochrane Risk of Bias tool" for included RCTs and before/after studies). A random-effects model was employed considering the anticipated variability between the studies.
resultsSeven hundred eighty-five titles were identified for screening. Two additional studies were selected after a reference search, and after a full-text review, a total of 12 studies were included. When pooling the results, ICU diary was associated with lower risk of depression (RR 0.41, 95% CI 0.23-0.75) and better quality of life (10.3 points higher in SF-36 general health score, 95% CI 0.79-19.8), without a decrease in anxiety or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). For the relatives receiving an ICU diary, there was no difference in the incidence of PTSD, anxiety, or depression. CONCLUSION AND RELEVANCE: This systematic review and meta-analysis supports the use of ICU diaries to reduce the risk of depression and preserve the quality of life of patients after ICU admission. ICU diaries do not seem to have any beneficial effect on the relatives of the patients.
trial registrationPROSPERO, CRD42019136639.
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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.