Patients in the ICU often experience unique symptoms such as delirium and acute respiratory failure.  Both symptoms contribute to significant distress and the psychological component often needs to be addressed. Furthermore, in the cancer population, repeated hospitalizations are common. Therefore, appropriately managing a patient’s distress during each hospitalization is crucial to help support engagement in future medical care. There is a need to dive into the literature and present the current empirically support recommendations for addressing such presentations. Understanding risk factors, preventative measures, and treatment would not only be helpful for psychologists, but for many different types of providers who interface with patients who are in the ICU or discharged onto other floors.  

This is important especially for our population given that cancer patients often have multiple hospital stays. Basing our understanding and interventions on the most recent empirically supported recommendations gives us the best opportunity for favorable outcomes when addressing ICU-related distress. There is less of a focus on the mental health aspect of an ICU stay due to the severity of the patient’s medical status. This is completely reasonable as the main goal is to address the patients’ medical needs, however, this talk will serve as a reminder of the possible mental health consequences of an ICU hospitalization.