Relationship between the post-traumatic stress and post-traumatic growth in patients discharged from the COVID-19 intensive care unit of the selected hospitals in South Khorasan, Iran, 2020-2021

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is one of the psychological problems after the COVID-19 pandemic. Some people can cope with this trauma and return to their previous status or even achieve a higher level of performance, which is called post-traumatic growth. This study aimed to investigate the prevalence and the relationship between the PTSD and post-traumatic growth symptoms among patients discharged from COVID-19 intensive care units (ICU).

The present study was a descriptive study conducted on 172 patients discharged from COVID-19 ICU. Samples were selected with cluster randomized multistage method from the patients discharged from the ICU, with previous six months recovery. Data were collected using demographic questionnaire, and post-traumatic stress and post-traumatic growth checklists. Then, the collected data were analyzed in SPSS software (version 21).

Results showed that 34.3% and 58.96% of patients experienced PTSD and post-traumatic growth, respectively. Pearson correlation analysis showed that with the increase in PTSD score, the post-traumatic growth score also increased in these patients (r=0.524, P=0.001).

Post-traumatic stress disorder and post-traumatic growth symptoms were common among COVID-19 patients admitted to the ICU. In addition, the more the patients experienced post-traumatic stress symptoms, the more likely they were to experience the post-traumatic growth.