Psychology in an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) service in the North-West
Maleeha Butt, Sarah Stirling, Hannah Fitzmaurice, Zoey Malpus · 2026
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Description
Maleeha Butt and colleagues report a 2026 service project on psychological needs in an ECMO service in north-west England. ECMO, short for extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, is a machine that does the work of the heart and lungs for critically ill patients. National guidance says intensive care patients should have access to psychologists, but the team's cardiothoracic unit had none. They measured former patients' mental health, interviewed them, and piloted a six-week ECMO-specific group.
Six weeks after discharge, fifty percent of patients scored in the clinically significant range for anxiety and thirty-seven percent for depression. Patients described feeling powerless and alone, and wondering what is normal after ECMO. The pilot group was well received, with patients saying they felt seen and heard. Anxiety symptoms fell by sixty-six percent and depression symptoms by seventy-eight percent in the small group.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Maleeha Butt, Sarah Stirling, Hannah Fitzmaurice, Zoey Malpus |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 27801 |
| LICENSE | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |