Objective: To test the hypothesis that posttraumatic stress and depressive symptoms, not cognitive or functional impairment, are associated with cardiac arrest survivors' negative recovery perceptions at hospital discharge.
Methods: Prospective observational cohort of cardiac arrest patients admitted between 9/2015-5/2017. Survival to discharge with sufficient mental status to complete a psychosocial interview was the main inclusion criterion. Perceived recovery was assessed through the question, "Do you feel that you have made a complete recovery from your arrest?" The following measures were examined as potential correlates of perceived recovery: Repeatable Battery for Assessment of Neuropsychological Status, Modified Lawton Physical Self-Maintenance Scale, Barthel Index, Modified Rankin Scale, Cerebral Performance Category, Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression (CES-D), and PTSD Checklist-Specific (PCL-S). Logistic regression evaluated associations between perceived recovery and potential correlates of recovery.
Results: 64/354 patients (58% men, 48% white, mean age 52 ± 17) were included. 67% (n = 43) had a negative recovery perception. There were no differences among patients' cognitive and functional domains. In individual models, patients with higher PCL-S and CES-D scores were more likely to have a negative recovery perception after adjusting for age and gender (OR: 1.2, 95% CI [1.1, 1.4], p = 0.003) and (OR: 1.1, 95% CI [1.0, 1.1], p = 0.05).
Conclusions: Within one month after a cardiac arrest event, survivors' negative recovery perceptions are associated with psychological distress.
Keywords: Cardiac arrest; Depression; Enduring somatic threat model; Neuropsychological tests; Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.
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