Young Children Admitted to ICU for Sepsis Treatment Show Symptoms of PTSD Later

About one-third of children admitted in Intensive Care Units (ICUs) for treatment of sepsis have been found to show symptoms of PTSD later. In some people, these symptoms may persist years after discharge.// Some evidence shows that the immune responses of these children may have been altered during their stay in the ICU, which may be the risk factor for developing symptoms of PTSD later.

Sepsis is a potentially life-threatening condition caused by the body's immune system reacting to overwhelming to infection. It can lead to septic shock, damage to major organs, a rapid and potentially fatal blood pressure drop, and needs immediate hospital treatment.

Between 2010 and 2017, researchers from St Mary's Hospital and Imperial College in London followed up 69 young patients (all older than three years, average age of 4.2 years, 48% male) who had been admitted to intensive care for treatment of sepsis. When reviewed at an average follow up time of 4.6 years later, 31% of the children showed signs of PTSD. In some cases, PTSD symptoms were still evident up to 7 years after discharge. The results from the study also indicated that children who had experienced rapid increases in inflammation during their stay were at higher risk. The data was controlled for potentially misleading (confounding) factors, such as length of stay in intensive care, medications, etc.

Lead researcher, Dr. Georgina Corbet Burcher (Imperial College, London) said, "Young people survive critical illness at greater rates than ever before, but in some, there is a high psychological price. PTSD symptoms can lead to long term effects on their mental health and wellbeing, which persist in the absence of 'physical' after-effects. It appears that those who suffer from sepsis may be at particular risk for subsequent PTSD symptom development.

Recent studies indicate that PTSD affects around 7% of young people in the UK. On average, the risk is increased if a child has to spend time in an Intensive Care Unit, with around 20-30% of children overall showing symptoms at 3-12 months following discharge. This is the first study to look at the long term endurance of symptoms after sepsis, indicating that they may persist in some children.

There are many questions still unanswered-in particular why it is that sepsis might be a risk factor for later development of PTSD symptoms, which children are at risk of long term symptoms and the potential mechanism behind the brain's response to high levels of inflammation... We also need to bear in mind that this is a small study in a single-center, so these findings need to be confirmed in other settings".

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The World Health Organization estimates that around 3 million newborns and 1.2 million children suffer from sepsis globally each year. In the general population, they estimate that 30 million suffer each year, with around 6 million deaths. In the US, around 75,000 children contract sepsis every year, while the UK's Sepsis Trust estimated that 25,000 children contract sepsis every year, although not all are admitted to ICU.

Source-Eurekalert