Publications by authors named "Paula L Watson"

Sleep and circadian disruption (SCD) is common and severe in the ICU. On the basis of rigorous evidence in non-ICU populations and emerging evidence in ICU populations, SCD is likely to have a profound negative impact on patient outcomes. Thus, it is urgent that we establish research priorities to advance understanding of ICU SCD.

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Objectives: Numerous risk factors for sleep disruption in critically ill adults have been described. We performed a systematic review of all risk factors associated with sleep disruption in the ICU setting.

Data Sources: PubMed, EMBASE, CINAHL, Web of Science, Cochrane Central Register for Controlled Trials, and Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews.

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Objective: To update and expand the 2013 Clinical Practice Guidelines for the Management of Pain, Agitation, and Delirium in Adult Patients in the ICU.

Design: Thirty-two international experts, four methodologists, and four critical illness survivors met virtually at least monthly. All section groups gathered face-to-face at annual Society of Critical Care Medicine congresses; virtual connections included those unable to attend.

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Objectives: To describe novel guideline development strategies created and implemented as part of the Society of Critical Care Medicine's 2018 clinical practice guidelines for pain, agitation (sedation), delirium, immobility (rehabilitation/mobility), and sleep (disruption) in critically ill adults.

Design: We involved critical illness survivors from start to finish, used and expanded upon Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluation methodology for making recommendations, identified evidence gaps, and developed communication strategies to mitigate challenges.

Setting/subjects: Thirty-two experts from five countries, across five topic-specific sections; four methodologists, two medical librarians, four critical illness survivors, and two Society of Critical Care Medicine support staff.

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Objectives: Many patients, due to a combination of illness and sedatives, spend a considerable amount of time in a comatose state that can include time in burst suppression. We sought to determine if burst suppression measured by processed electroencephalography during coma in sedative-exposed patients is a predictor of post-coma delirium during critical illness.

Design: Observational convenience sample cohort.

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Objectives: Standard sleep scoring criteria may be unreliable when applied to critically ill patients. We sought to quantify typical and atypical polysomnographic findings in critically ill patients and to begin development and reliability testing of methodology to characterize the atypical polysomnographic tracings that confound standard sleep scoring criteria.

Design: Prospective convenience sample.

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Delirium: is sleep important?

Best Pract Res Clin Anaesthesiol

September 2012

Delirium and poor sleep quality are common and often co-exist in hospitalised patients. A link between these disorders has been hypothesised but whether this link is a cause-and-effect relationship or simply an association resulting from shared mechanisms is yet to be determined. Potential shared mechanisms include: abnormalities of neurotransmitters, tissue ischaemia, inflammation and sedative exposure.

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Sedation in the ICU is, paradoxically, both a cause and a potential treatment for the sleep disruption almost universally observed in the critically ill. A patient-focused sedation strategy that minimizes unnecessary medication, avoids medication withdrawal, addresses the specific impediments to sleep, and serves as an adjunct to attentive environmental control may ultimately serve patients best.

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Acute brain dysfunction, usually manifested as delirium, occurs in up to 80% of critically ill patients. Delirium increases costs of hospitalizations and affects short-term outcomes such as duration of mechanical ventilation, intensive care unit (ICU) length of stay, and the hospital length of stay. Long-term consequences-cognitive impairment and increased risk of death-can be devastating.

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Delirium occurs frequently in critically ill patients and has been associated with both short-term and long-term consequences. Efforts to decrease delirium prevalence have been directed at identifying and modifying its risk factors. One potentially modifiable risk factor is sleep deprivation.

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The need for compassionate care of the critically ill often compels clinicians to treat these patients with pharmacologic sedation. Although patients may appear to be asleep under the influence of these sedating medications, the relationship between sleep and sedation is complex and not fully understood. These medications exert their effects at different points along the central nervous system's natural sleep pathway, leading to similarities and differences between the two states.

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Objectives: This study investigates the possibility of a relationship between oversedation and mortality in mechanically ventilated patients. The presence of burst suppression, a pattern of severely decreased brain wave activity on the electroencephalogram, may be unintentionally induced by heavy doses of sedatives. Burst suppression has never been studied as a potential risk factor for death in patients without a known neurologic disorder or injury.

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Survivors of critical illness frequently report poor sleep while in the intensive care unit (ICU), and sleep deprivation has been hypothesized to lead to emotional distress, ICU delirium and neurocognitive dysfunction, prolongation of mechanical ventilation, and decreased immune function. Thus, the careful study of sleep in the ICU is essential to understanding possible relationships with adverse clinical outcomes. Such research, however, must be conducted using sleep measurement techniques that have important limitations in this unique setting.

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