• Kelly M Shaffer, Eric Riklin, Jamie M Jacobs, Jonathan Rosand, and Ana-Maria Vranceanu.
• 1Psychiatry Department, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA. 2Psychology Department, University of Miami, Miami, FL. 3Division of Neurocritical Care and Emergency Neurology, Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA.
• Crit. Care Med. 2016 Nov 1; 44 (11): 2028-2036.

ObjectiveTo assess the correlation of psychosocial resiliency factors (mindfulness and coping) with symptoms of posttraumatic stress, anxiety, and depression in patients recently admitted to the neuroscience ICU and their primary informal caregivers.DesignA descriptive, cross-sectional correlational study.SettingNeuroscience ICU in a major medical center.ParticipantsA total of 78 dyads of patients (total n = 81) and their primary caregivers (total n = 92) from June to December 2015. Study enrollment occurred within the first 2 weeks of patient admission to the neuroscience ICU.InterventionNone.Measurements And Main ResultsDyads completed self-report measures of mindfulness (Cognitive and Affective Mindfulness Scale-Revised), coping (Measure of Coping Status-A), posttraumatic stress (Posttraumatic Checklist-Specific Stressor), anxiety (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale-A), and depression (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale-D). Rates of clinically significant posttraumatic stress, anxiety, and depressive symptoms were high and comparable between patient and caregiver samples. Own psychological resilience factors and psychiatric symptoms were strongly correlated for both patients and caregivers. Depressive symptoms were interdependent between patients and their caregivers, and one's own mindfulness was independently related to one's partner's depressive symptoms.ConclusionsRates of clinically significant psychiatric symptoms were high, equally prevalent in patients and caregivers, and interdependent between patients and their caregivers. For both patients and caregivers, psychological resiliency factors were associated with both self and partner psychiatric symptoms. Findings suggest that attending to the psychiatric health of both patients and caregivers in the neuroscience ICU is a priority and that patients and their caregivers must be considered together in a system to fully address either individual's psychiatric symptoms.

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