Memories and prevalence of posttraumatic stress disorder in intensive care units

The present study evaluated the prevalence of PTSD indicators in patients who had to be hospitalized in ICU six months after being discharged and examined the relationship between PTSD and mnemonic memories. Participants were 41 adult patients with different diseases who answered questionnaires about PTSD, memory and clinical information. It was identified that 24.4% of the sample presented PTSD symptoms. These patients presented more affective memories than those without PTSD (t=2.29, p<.05). Affective memories correlated with total PTSD and with the dimensions 'reliving' (r=.443, p<.01) and 'excitability' (r=.403, p<.01). Hierarchical regression analysis showed that sex (woman) and the presence of affective memories were PTSD predictors, explaining 38.2% of the variance.