Issues in mental health nursing
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Issues Ment Health Nurs · Jan 2013
Posttraumatic stress disorder among spouses of patients discharged from the intensive care unit after six months.
The Intensive Care Unit (ICU) can be traumatic, not only for patients, but also their closest relatives, especially spouses. Within Botswana, a developing country with very few ICUs and not so sophisticated machinery or a generalised lack of counselling for relatives, the ICU experience can be more traumatic. This study reports on the proportion of spouses who continued to experience mental distress, including the incidence of posttraumatic stress disorder, at six months after the discharge of their spouse from an intensive care unit. ⋯ Fifteen spouses reported intrusive memories of ICU and avoided reminders of the experience six months later. Ten spouses reported feeling anxious for a short while after their spouse's discharge but that they had come to terms with the experience. In order to mitigate the trauma experienced by spouses the study suggests that pre- and post-counselling for close relatives, especially spouses, should be implemented at the point of hospitalisation, during admission, and after discharge for a period of at least six months.
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Issues Ment Health Nurs · Jan 2013
The association of pain severity and pain interference levels with abuse experiences and mental health symptoms among 300 mothers: baseline data analysis for a 7-year prospective study.
Women who experience interpersonal violence are at increased risk for anxiety, depression, posttraumatic stress symptoms, and chronic pain and other physical disorders. Although the effects of mental health disorders on women's functioning and well-being are well established, less is known about the effects of pain. ⋯ Higher levels of pain severity and pain interference were significantly associated with anxiety, PTSD, and depression symptoms. Mental health symptoms compounded by pain, may leave abused women less able to access resources or practice safety behaviors to protect themselves and their children.