Effects of distraction cognitive symptoms of anxiety in patients in a intensive care unit

• Autor(a) principal: Viana, Filipe Casati
• Data de Publicação: 2024
• Outros Autores: Nogueira, Graziela Sousa
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Revista JRG de Estudos Acadêmicos
• Texto Completo: http://revistajrg.com/index.php/jrg/article/view/908
• topic: Ansiedade; Distração cognitiva; Abordagem cognitivo-comportamental; Unidade de Terapia Intensiva-UTI; Anxiety; Cognitive distraction; Cognitive-behavioral approach; Intensive Care Unit - ICU

A stay in an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) can impact patients' mental health, with psychological changes being common in this context, including high levels of anxiety, which highlights the relevance of intervention strategies. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of cognitive distraction on the anxiety of patients admitted to an Intensive Care Unit (ICU). The research design was quasi-experimental, being a non-randomized clinical trial. 21 conscious patients admitted to a public ICU in the Federal District-DF participated. The instruments used in the investigation included: 1) initial interview, addressing the current diagnosis, personal clinical history and assessment of the patient's mental state; 2) complementary pre-intervention questionnaire, through which anxiety was assessed and; 3) complementary post-intervention questionnaire. Regarding the results, a moderate level of anxiety among patients was presented before carrying out any intervention (Md = 8, on a scale of 0-10, where 0 = no anxiety and 10 = intense anxiety). After the application of cognitive distraction, there was an important statistically significant reduction in anxiety scores (Md = 5), according to the Wilcoxon signed rank test (z = -3.72, p< 0.001), indicating the effectiveness of the proposed intervention employed. Thus, the importance of non-pharmacological strategies, such as cognitive distraction, is highlighted as a resource to be used in the context of ICUs to promote humanization and mental health of patients.