Prevalence and risk factors for post-traumatic stress disorder in Japanese relatives of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest patients after receiving a pamphlet concerning the grieving process.

AIM

To investigate the prospective frequency of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among relatives of sudden death patients following provision of a pamphlet explaining the stages of the complicated grief process and self-regulating techniques.

METHODS

From May 2017 to February 2018, we prospectively and consecutively provided a pamphlet to relatives of out-of-hospital sudden cardiac arrest victims who failed to obtain spontaneous circulation. We investigated the psychiatric status of the bereaved relatives using the Impact of Event Scale - Revised (IES-R). An IES-R score over 24 was defined as PTSD.

RESULTS

Fifty-four relatives of the 54 dead patients (victims) provided permission of entry to this research. All subjects and victims were Japanese. Among them, 24 subjects had an IES-R score of 0 and 5 (9.3%) had PTSD approximately 1 month after their bereavement. There were no relatives who received spontaneous psychiatric treatment. The IES-R scores for non-medical cardiac arrest, death inquests, and parent variables were significantly higher compared with medical cardiac arrest, no inquest, and no parent, respectively. The IES-R scores in those who were a child of the victim were significantly lower than in those who were not.

CONCLUSION

The present study showed that the frequency of PTSD was 9.3% at 1 month following bereavement among Japanese relatives of sudden death victims after an intervention. This frequency was minimal compared with previous reports.