Critical care medicine
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Critical care medicine · Oct 2001
Multicenter StudySymptoms of anxiety and depression in family members of intensive care unit patients: ethical hypothesis regarding decision-making capacity.
Anxiety and depression may have a major impact on a person's ability to make decisions. Characterization of symptoms that reflect anxiety and depression in family members visiting intensive care patients should be of major relevance to the ethics of involving family members in decision-making, particularly about end-of-life issues. ⋯ More than two-thirds of family members visiting patients in the intensive care unit suffer from symptoms of anxiety or depression. Involvement of anxious or depressed family members in end-of-life decisions should be carefully discussed.
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Critical care medicine · Oct 2001
Multicenter Study Comparative StudyFrench intensivists do not apply American recommendations regarding decisions to forgo life-sustaining therapy.
Recommendations for making and implementing decisions to forgo life-sustaining therapy in intensive care units have been developed in the United States, but the extent that they are realized in practice has yet to be measured. ⋯ A decision to withhold or withdraw life-sustaining therapy was implemented for half the patients who died in the French intensive care units studied. In many cases, the decision was taken without regard for one or more factors identified as relevant in U.S. guidelines.