Anxiety and agitation have also been found to be commonly experienced by patients in ICU with an incidence of approximately 50-70%.

The cause of anxiety/agitation is frequently multifactorial with contributory elements including: Their illness and care: pain, constipation, delirium, hypoxia, hypotension, CNS pathology such as brain injury, medications, drug or alcohol toxicity or withdrawal, underlying psychiatric illness.

The ICU environment: being confined to bed, endotracheal tubes, unfamiliar surroundings and faces, frequent loud noises, bright lights, disturbed sleep.

Delirium is again very common in ICU patients. Please read the Delirium PDF