Critical Illness Clinical Trials

Researchers are doing this study to find out if a high fermented food diet is tolerable, and if it will help improve quality of life after surviving a critical illness, including severe COVID-19, by promoting gut health recovery and decreasing gut inflammation. Read Less

This is a prospective longitudinal study that will evaluate the unmet needs of older adults (65 and older) who return home (either directly or after short-term rehab) after an ICU hospitalization, evaluate the association of these unmet needs with clinically relevant outcomes, and assess barriers and facilitators to addressing these unmet needs. The proposed research will inform the development and evaluation of a subsequent intervention to improve functional outcomes among older ICU survivors, in alignment with the NIH's mission to reduce disability. Read Less

The purpose of the study is to conduct a pilot randomized trial of a program designed to enhance equitable communication and emotional support for families of critically ill patients in order to determine feasibility, acceptability, and participant experience with the program. The primary study procedures include: chart abstraction, questionnaires, meetings with ICU support counselors, meetings with ICU physicians and care team, audio recordings of these meetings (optional), and interviews with study participants (optional). Study participants include: 70 critically ill patients with acute respiratory failure (enrolled with the consent of their Legally Authorized Representative) and their primary surrogate decision makers as well as ICU support counselors and ICU care teams (physicians, nurses, social workers). Read Less

The overarching goal of the proposed study is to determine the trajectories of physical recovery and cellular markers involved with the underlying failure to recover muscle after critical illness, while exploring which characteristics are associated with sustained physical disability. This proposal will examine muscle pathophysiology carefully aligned with physical function outcomes in order to longitudinally assess the recovery, or failed recovery, of muscle function in participants after critical illness: to examine the recovery of muscle and physical function in ICU survivors through longitudinal assessments to investigate the underlying cellular markers and mechanisms of muscle recovery in ICU survivors to determine which cellular markers contribute to physical disability in ICU survivors up to 1 year after hospital admission Read Less

A randomized within-subject crossover trial to compare the effects of live and recorded music listening on biomarkers of stress and pain among children receiving mechanical ventilation in the pediatric intensive care unit. Read Less

The purpose of this study is to collect a large amount of data that may assist in addressing the gap in knowledge of understanding pupillometer readings using a pupillometer device. The aim of this project is to establish normative values for pupillometer data. Measures of central tendency will be developed for the variables provided by automated pupillary exams, which will provide an enhanced understanding of clinically appropriate pupil values for size, reactivity, and neurological pupil index. Read Less

More than 60% of intensive care unit (ICU) patients are adults ages 60 and older, who are at high risk for ICU-acquired cognitive impairment. After ICU discharge, ICU survivors often experience sleep disturbances and inactivity, and almost 80% of ICU patients experience disturbances in circadian rhythm, which may affect cognitive function. Understanding the optimal, chronotherapeutic timing of cognitive interventions is crucial to promote circadian realignment and cognitive function, and may improve intervention feasibility, acceptability, and efficacy. Specific Aim 1 will determine feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary effect sizes for: 1) a morning session of a computerized cognitive training intervention [COG]; and 2) a late afternoon/early evening session of the COG intervention; compared to 3) standard inpatient care/usual care [UC]. Specific Aim 2 will examine circadian rhythm parameters to determine the optimal timing of the daily COG intervention. Exploratory Aim 3 will explore if the effects of the COG intervention on cognitive function are mediated by daytime activity, and explore if selected biological and clinical factors moderate intervention effects on cognitive function. Read Less

This study aims to determine the ways in which clinician implicit racial biases affect clinician communication with family members of patients near the end of life and to test a novel physician training intervention to reduce the effects of implicit racial bias on quality of communication. Phase 1: A sample of 50 physicians who care for seriously ill patients, including oncologists, critical care physicians and hospital-based internists will participated in a simulated clinical encounter with a Black standardized family member (actor) of a hypothetical case patient. Measures of implicit and explicit bias will be correlated with verbal and nonverbal communication behavior. Phase 2: This is a 2-arm randomized feasibility pilot of an intervention to mitigate the effects of clinician implicit bias on communication behavior. Physicians who treat patients with serious illness including oncologists, critical care physicians and hospital-based internists will be recruited to participate in a communication training session to reduce the effects of implicit bias or a control training session focusing only on communication skills. Their communication behavior will be videotaped during a simulated encounter with a Black standardized family member (actor) of a hypothetical patient with serious illness before and after the training sessions. The communication behavior before and after the training session will be compared between physicians that received the communication skills only intervention versus the physicians that received the communication skills and bias mitigation training. The primary hypothesis is that physicians who receive both the communication skills and the bias mitigation training will have greater improvements in communication skills with the Black standardized caregiver (actor) compared with those who receive only the communication skills training. Read Less

Sleep wake disturbances compound recovery in over half of pediatric traumatic brain injury survivors, leading to impaired quality of life, and few effective interventions exist to treat this important morbidity. Therefore, this study will conduct a randomized controlled trial evaluating a melatonin intervention started during hospitalization and continued after discharge compared to placebo. The trial will investigate if this intervention is feasible, acceptable, and effective at reducing sleep wake disturbances as measured on the Sleep Disturbances Scale for Children 1-month after hospital discharge. Participants will be randomly assigned to receive the intervention (melatonin) or to the control group (placebo) with a goal of equal numbers of participants in each group and all will receive sleep education. Participants will be followed closely after consent and outcomes will be assessed at hospital discharge, and 1-month. Outcomes will focus on feasibility (ability to recruit patients into the trial) and acceptability (patient safety and satisfaction), but will also assess the effectiveness of the intervention to reduce sleep disturbances after discharge. The investigators will assess sleep using questionnaires and actigraphy (watch-like activity monitors). Exploratory outcomes will include global health outcomes. Read Less

The purpose of this randomized clinical trial is to test the efficacy of dexmedetomidine for the self-management of sedative therapy (SMST) in a sample of critically ill patients receiving mechanical ventilator support. The investigators hypothesis is that self-management of sedative therapy by mechanically ventilated patients in the intensive care unit (ICU), tailored to their individual needs will be more efficacious than nurse-administered sedative therapy in reducing anxiety, which may reduce duration of mechanical ventilator support and occurrence of delirium. Read Less

Summary: Emerging data demonstrate long-term morbidity and mortality in those who survive critical illness. However, there is no data regarding long-term follow-up for ICU survivors. The investigators have begun the implementation of an ICU recovery clinic. Rationale: ICU survivors are at high risk for functional, cognitive and psychiatric impairments. However, methods to mitigate these impairments and improve recovery are lacking. Special follow-up clinics for survivors of critical illness have been proposed and implemented to some degree, but are uncommon. Read Less

The Researchers are trying to evaluate efficacy of a psychotherapeutic approach that can be applied to those who are critically ill. The daily approach in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) is designed to provide patients with psychological support, reassurance, and explanations of where they are and what is happening to them. Read Less