Pain rather than induced emotions and ICU sound increases skin conductance variability in healthy volunteers.

BACKGROUND: Assessing pain in critically ill patients is difficult. Skin conductance variability (SCV), induced by the sympathetic response to pain, has been suggested as a method to identify pain in poorly communicating patients. However, SCV, a derivate of conventional skin conductance, could potentially also be sensitive to emotional stress. The purpose of the study was to investigate if pain and emotional stress can be distinguished with SCV. METHODS: In a series of twelve 1-min sessions with SCV recording, 18 healthy volunteers were exposed to standardized electric pain stimulation during blocks of positive, negative, or neutral emotion, induced with pictures from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS). Additionally, authentic intensive care unit (ICU) sound was included in half of the sessions. All possible combinations of pain and sound occurred in each block of emotion, and blocks were presented in randomized order. RESULTS: Pain stimulation resulted in increases in the number of skin conductance fluctuations (NSCF) in all but one participant. During pain-free baseline sessions, the median NSCF was 0.068 (interquartile range 0.013-0.089) and during pain stimulation median NSCF increased to 0.225 (interquartile range 0.146-0.3175). Only small increases in NSCF were found during negative emotions. Pain, assessed with the numeric rating scale, during the sessions with pain stimulation was not altered significantly by other ongoing sensory input. CONCLUSION: In healthy volunteers, NSCF appears to reflect ongoing autonomous reactions mainly to pain and to a lesser extent, reactions to emotion induced with IAPS pictures or ICU sound.

Body image and psychological outcome after severe skin and soft tissue infection requiring intensive care.

BACKGROUND: Patients with severe skin and soft tissue infection (SSTI) requiring intensive care unit (ICU) stay are commonly treated with antibiotics, surgery and in some centers also with hyperbaric oxygen therapy. Long-term follow-up of body image and psychological outcome has not been described despite extensive surgery, potentially altered body image and subsequent psychological problems. The aim was to describe perceived body image and its relation to anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)-related symptoms in patients with severe SSTI 1 year after ICU stay. Specifically, we aimed to assess potential differences related to gender and anatomic site of infection. METHODS: Fifty patients treated for severe SSTI in the General ICU, Karolinska University Hospital 2008-2010 received the body image scale (BIS), impact of event scale (IES), and hospital anxiety and depression scale (HADS) 1 year after ICU discharge. RESULTS: Abdominoperineal SSTI was associated with more body image problems than other anatomic sites of infection in both men and women. Generally, women reported higher BIS scores than men (median 9.5 vs. 3.0 of total 30, P < 0.03) indicating more negative body image. A substantial number of patients reported scar dissatisfaction (63.9%), body dissatisfaction (51.1%) and body feeling less whole (51.0%). BIS scores correlated with HADS anxiety (r = 0.59, P < 0.01), depression (r = 0.60, P < 0.01) and IES (r = 0.61, P < 0.01) scores. CONCLUSION: One year after severe SSTI requiring intensive care, women and patients with abdominoperineal SSTI reported significantly more body image problems. Negative body image was associated with anxiety, depression and PTSD-related symptoms. Specific follow-up for SSTI patients is warranted.