Administration of pharmacological sleep aids prior to, during and following critical illness

Abstract

Background: Sleep in the intensive care unit (ICU) is frequently disturbed and this may have a detrimental effect on recovery. Aim: To determine the use of pharmacological sleep aids in critically ill patients prior to, during and after ICU admission. Methods: We conducted a single-centre period prevalence study of all adult patients admitted to a university-associated adult medical-surgical ICU for more than two nights in a 3-month period ending September 2019. The major outcome of interest was the proportion of ICU patients who had a pharmacological sleep aid administered prior to, during and after ICU admission. Associations of selected patient variables with sleep aid prescription in the..