Figure 1Patient study recruitment diagram. ICU, intensive care unit.Table 1Patient characteristicsA total of 112 (27%) patients either refused to participate or selleck EPZ-5676 did not respond. These patients were significantly younger (42.4 years standard deviation (SD) 15.5 vs. 47.7 years SD 15.6, P = 0.003) and were more often transferred to local hospitals while still on MV, (49.1% vs. 26.6%, P = 0.001) than the patients that participated at four to six weeks (n = 255), but did not differ according to clinical variables.In the present study, the 43 patients who participated only at 12 months lack baseline data and were not included in the regression analyses, in the analyses of the course of symptoms or in the analyses of prevalence. The results from these patients (n = 43) were only used for comparisons with the responders (n = 194).

These patients were probably more seriously ill during the ICU stay because they had higher mean NEMS score (32.0, 95%CI = 30.4 to 33.7, vs. 29.6, 95% CI = 28.8 to 30.5; P = 0.04), were more often MV (97.7% vs. 84.7%, P = 0.02), had longer duration (days) of MV (16.2, 95% CI = 11.7 to 20.6, vs. 11.0, 95% CI = 9.3 to 12.7; P = 0.02) and were more often trauma patients (48.8% vs. 33.7%, P = 0.04) compared with the patients that participated at one month. No significant differences were found in age, gender, SAPS, LOS ICU, head injury/diseases or the proportion of patients that were transferred to other hospitals. The 43 patients did not differ significantly from the 194 patients at the one-year measurements of IES-total (21.9 vs. 22.5), HADS-Anxiety (6.

8 vs. 5.8) or HADS-Depression (5.4 vs. 4.4) scores.The level of psychological distressThe mean score for IES-total one-year after ICU discharge (Table (Table2)2) was not significantly different between genders, but woman had higher scores than men (25.4 for women, 95% CI = 20.8 to 30.0, vs. 20.8 for men, 95% CI = 17.7 to 23.9; P = 0.086). Twenty-seven percent of the patients had scores at PTSD level at one year (IES-total �� 35; Table Table2).2). No significant differences in psychological distress symptoms were seen between medical, surgical and trauma patients at one year, except that slightly more surgical patients had a HADS-Depression score of 11 or more compared with medical and trauma patients.

Table 2Psychological distress measurements at one yearDuring the first year following ICU discharge no differences in the IES-total, HADS-Anxiety and HADS-Depression mean scores across the three time points were found (Friedman, P = 0.388, P = 0.076, P = 0.446, respectively). Neither did we find any difference in the Batimastat percentage of patients with symptoms above the lowest cut-off value, IES-total of 20 or more, between baseline (46%) and 12 months (51%; n = 170; Figure Figure2).2).