Anyone else had "ICU Psychosis"? Here is an article on the extreme form.

[CTyankee]

http://www.slate.com/id/2200288/

I had a much less traumatizing experience than what this article refers to, but freaky nonetheless. It was after my 3rd abdominal surgery in 3 weeks time. I was in the "step down" unit which is midway between the floor and the ICU. I remember the bright light always on. To this day I don't have an accurate picture in my head about what the area looked like because I was hallucinating. My brain was interpreting the nurses as supermarket employees and I was there to be "work hardened" at the "cash registers" (nurses stations). My next hallucination had me on a train from Boston. My third was when I was in my room on the floor, wondering aloud to the nurse why the furniture had been shoved up against the wall (it wasn't) and unable to recognize a friend who visited (and fled asap, probably freaked out).

It wasn't until only recently that I found out that I had "ICU psychosis" a real phenomenon. I learned that the reason I had this was due in part to REM sleep deprivation. It made me realize how scary sleep deprivation as a form of torture and brainwashing can be.

Has anyone else had this experience? I'm fine now but it has made me ponder how the brain can/does process information. This gets a little scary.

[jakem]

1. When I was in the ICU last-

I had these crazy dreams / hallucinations that they were renting out hospital rooms to hookers and their clients.

I think it was the morphine...



Upon waking from my morphine slumber, I asked my wife what night it was.. when she told me Sunday, I responded:

"turn on the Simpsons! I am on drugs!"

It was a good one, which I laughed at and promptly forgot.

:shrug:

[demnan]

2. My brother had it when he was in ICU

crazier than a hoot owl. He had all kinds of crazy dreams, some about trains (there were pictures of trains on the hospital walls). He thought the dreams were reality and the reality was a dream. I can't wait to read the article and share with him.

Thanks

[TomInTib]

3. Mine happened in Solitary Confinement.

The light was always on in there, too.

I think the diet might have contributed, as well. Bread-and-water, three days on and three days off.

My mind was rockin'.

[Warpy]

8. Buddhist monks in prison have told how they intentionally

misbehaved in order to get sent to solitary confinement. Solitary is paradise to a heavy meditator.

[TomInTib]

15. I wasn't in much of a meditating mood, back then.

I had been snatched out of a hot Zone and deposited in a Marine Brig. Just like flipping a switch.

Here's something I wrote about it, some time back...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x313151

[Lisa0825]

4. My mother had it.

It was at the time of the Aggie bonfire collapse and the Elian Gonzales fiasco. She was hallucinating that the hospital was on fire and no one would let her leave and that Castro was invading Texas. It was awful. She pulled out her IVs and had to be strapped down in bed, and was completely inconsolable until they got her sedated.... then when she would wake up, we were just waiting for it to happen again.

I was actually the one who brought up the term ICU psychosis to the docs and said, now what are you going to do about it??? They tried moving her to a room at the end of the hall which was less noisy and gave the nurses and other staff instructions on waking her less frequently so she could sleep more overnight and be more aware of the passing of days.

I don't have time to read the article right now, but I have it bookmarked. Thanks for posting about it.

[TwilightGardener]

5. It's a very real phenomenon--

but you combine critically ill patients, many on ventilators being fed powerful IV drips and narcotics, with the constant monitoring, beeping, alarms, standard nursing assessments every two or four hours around the clock, and it's difficult to avoid. These patients usually end up in restraints, they have a completely disrupted sleep/wake cycle, the lights HAVE to go on for treatments like dressing changes and drug administration...I was an ICU nurse for a few years, and I always felt bad for constantly disrupting my patients' rest when they needed it the most, but I also had to get things done.

[lldu]

6. My precious wife had that....

they called it "Sundowners". She was totally coherent until night time and then she just went ballistic, seeing things that weren't there. Believing that the nurses were punishing her by standing her bed on end and shoving her and it into a closet. The army stole all the food and military and nurses partied while the patients went uncared for.

It was bad. Morphine didn't do anything but make it worse. She was in the ICU for over 70 days.

I had never heard anyone else having it. Altho, they must have in order to have a name for it.

[Warpy]

7. It's very well known among nurses

and stems in a large part from things like that blood pressure cuff that inflates every 15 minutes (every 5 minutes in extreme cases) and brings a patient closer to consciousness when he's trying to sleep. ICUs are bright and loud even when the rooms themselves are dark. People who are sick enough to be in them are surrounded by equipment that alarms when anything changes. I used to hear those alarms in my sleep on my days off and wake up with my feet already hitting the floor.

Sedation is the kindest thing we can do for a patient in an ICU, but that's not possible if the patient is in liver failure and difficult in dialysis patients. Some of the sedatives can contribute to the hallucinations, but it's a case of being between the devil and the deep blue sea.

Sleep deprivation is pure hell. It should be outlawed right along with waterboarding.

[CrispyQ]

9. Lesley Sthal did a segment called 'The Science of Sleep' on 60 Minutes

a few months ago. It was fascinating! If you get a chance to catch it, definitely do!

This link has some of the info covered but isn't a full transcript: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/03/14/60minutes/printable3939721.shtml

[enlightenment]

10. I had some bizarre dreams in ICU -

but I wasn't awake or asleep in any real way, apparently, since the reason I was there was because I failed to "wake up" after a very long thoracic surgery. Eventually did, obviously.

I was very confused when I woke up though - and since I was restrained I have to assume I wasn't the most cooperative "unawake" patient.

[Jamastiene]

11. No, but I woke up during surgery once.

He was still taking the lump out when I woke up. The surgeon knew I was awake and kept right on working. He told me he'd be finished in a minute. I was horrified. I could feel everything he was doing. I'll never forget that experience. I hope I never get another lump or go back to that certain doctor. :puke:

[Hestia]

12. I had no idea that this is a psychosis - I just thought it was me

one of my stories is a woman showed up at my bedside, took me on a walk through the woods and we came to this beautiful cabin, carved with wonderful images. I asked why I was there and she said that I would be taken care of. I went inside this cozy cabin, sat by the fire for awhile, and then was put into a wonderful bed. I always thought that was my message that I would be okay. I still dream about that cabin.

2nd story - I was an actress in a horror flick from the 1970s, a cult classic, and the co-star and I were doing a publicity on the 20th anniversary (I have no idea what the movie was about), but in actually the media event was in actually a recreation of the movie - being chased by monsters, the whole nine yards. Quite gruesome.

One thing I did get, that I have only told a few, is that I felt someone hugging and kissing and stroking me, especially when I was in rehab. It would wake me up, thinking someone was actually there (no drugs at this time), but when I opened my eyes, no one. This continued for awhile after I was at home. Guess my spirit group was helping me out.

[MuseRider]

13. Oh yes, I was an ICU nurse.

I have not experienced it myself but have taken care of quite a few patients with it. It is horrible for them.

One lady screamed all night, I did not know why. It was cold and as we did when it was cold we wrapped up in warm blankets, wore them over our shoulders because scrubs do nothing to keep in warmth. The morning nurse left me a note. The patient was an American Indian woman and there was a story or something that was important to her that said that death came in a white robe. Boy did I feel badly.

[tpsbmam]

14. Very common experience.....

It can be terrifying sometimes but it's not at all unusual. In other words, you're not nuts. :7 Among many things (like the sensory changes and deprivation), people are typically on lots of narcotics. I had foot surgery and took percocet afterwards -- I woke up hallucinating one night. Only lasted for about 10 seconds but it scared the shit out of me for another 10 seconds. I can't say I never took another one -- had foot surgery again and took them afterward, but only for the first 2 days. The hallucination only happened once -- that was enough for me!

[wryter2000]

16. I had it

I was in ICU for two weeks and out of my head for most of it. It actually helped me get through the ordeal. I had a very mild case of PTSD afterward.