The research team led by Charlotte Martial assessed the incidence of near-death experiences (NDEs) among patients who survived a prolonged stay (i.e. > 7 days) in intensive care units (ICU), regardless aetiologies. Out of the 126 included patients, 15% reported having experienced an NDE. Higher frequency of dissociative symptoms and a greater spiritual and personal well-being were the strongest predictors for the recall of NDE. One year later, the NDE was not significantly associated with quality of life. These results were reported in the paper Incidence of near-death experiences in patients surviving a prolonged critical illness and their long-term impact: a prospective observational study published in the journal Critical Care and arise from the research project Characterization of “Near-Death Experiences” through the comparison of experiencers and non-experiencers’ particularities: inter-individual differences in cognitive characteristics and susceptibility to false memories, supported by the BIAL Foundation.
ABSTRACT
Background: So far, the few prospective studies on near-death experience (NDE) were carried out only in intensive care unit (ICU) patients with homogeneous aetiologies, such as cardiac arrest or trauma survivors. The aims of this 1-year prospective and monocentric study were to investigate the incidence of NDE in ICU survivors (all aetiologies) as well as factors that may affect its frequency, and to assess quality of life up to 1 year after enrolment.
Methods: We enrolled adults with a prolonged ICU stay (> 7 days). During the first 7 days after discharge, all eligible patients were assessed in a face-to-face interview for NDE using the Greyson NDE scale, dissociative experiences using the Dissociative Experience Scale, and spirituality beliefs using the WHOQOL-SRPB. Medical parameters were prospectively collected. At 1-year after inclusion, patients were contacted by phone to measure quality of life using the EuroQol five-dimensional questionnaire.
Results: Out of the 126 included patients, 19 patients (15%) reported having experienced a NDE as identified by the Greyson NDE scale (i.e. cut-off score ≥ 7/32). In univariate analyses, mechanical ventilation, sedation, analgesia, reason for admission, primary organ dysfunction, dissociative and spiritual propensities were associated with the emergence of NDE. In multivariate logistic regression analysis, only the dissociative and spiritual propensity strongly predicted the emergence of NDE. One year later (n = 61), the NDE was not significantly associated with quality of life.
Conclusions: The recall of NDE is not so rare in the ICU. In our cohort, cognitive and spiritual factors outweighed medical parameters as predictors of the emergence of NDE.
