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Recent Finding: ICU Stays Might do More Harm than Good.

                According to an article in the New York Times on January 11, doctors are now rethinking the benefits of keeping patients in intensive care.  Recent studies have shown that spending any length of time in an intensive care unit, even a few days, can lead to long-term detrimental effects. Some patients emerge from ICUs  with concentration problems or having lost a significant portion of their former strength. Many are weak for years afterward, or weigh significantly less than they had before. Even post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is not uncommon.

                For decades, health professionals  considered it a success just to get a patient out of intensive care. Now, it seems that is only half the battle. What people lose in those ICU rooms, be it strength, focus or stamina, tends to not come back fully in the long run.

                Doctors supposed that the safest thing to do in the ICU was to avoid disturbing the patients, letting them rest around the clock. A new school of thought is proving to have overwhelmingly positive consequences, however. Doctors have found that by taking patients off of their sedatives periodically (say, once a day) and waking them up, it helps to maintain the patient’s awareness of reality and can prevent many of the lasting effects mentioned above. Some patients are even encouraged to walk a bit, if they are able. Amazingly, introducing some type of activity into ICU patient’s lives rather than leaving them to rest results in faster recovery times.