Background
anxiety, psychiatric illness, NET, post-traumatic stress disorders, PTSD, psychosomatic illnesses, depression
CRITICAL ILLNESS
Worldwide, the number of patients admitted to an intensive care unit (ICU) is increasing, and improvements in medical technology and treatment helps more patients to survive critical illness [The risk of developing psychiatric illness as depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorders PTSD is estimated to be up to 62% [The long-term follow up of patients after ICU treatment is given mainly in primary care. The GP team knows their patients before the ICU treatment started and will support them for years afterwards. Therefore, the PICTURE trial (“PTSD after ICU survival”) has been initiated to improve the follow-up care of ICU patients in primary care by testing a brief talking therapy with case management. The intervention is based on the narrative exposure therapy (NET), a well-established combination of testimony therapy and cognitive-behavioural therapy, originally developed for low-income countries [In Germany, GP teams provide support and counselling for psychosomatic illnesses and care for people with mental health issues but do not regularly offer psychotherapy or other psychological interventions [