Rethinking Regret: Reappraisal Tendencies Buffer Regret for ICU Surrogates Following Patient Death.
Grant A Pignatiello, Paul J Tuschman, Stephanie Griggs and 3 others
PMID 40521758WHAT IT FOUND
Surrogates of ICU patients who died were 4.3 times more likely to report regret than surrogates of survivors.
Higher baseline ability to reinterpret the decision was linked to lower regret after death, but no intervention was tested.
Key findings
01Surrogates of ICU patients who died had 4.3 times higher odds of regret than surrogates of survivors.
02Among surrogates of deceased patients, each one-unit increase in baseline reappraisal tendency was associated with a 76% reduction in the odds of regret.
03Reappraisal tendency was not significantly associated with regret odds for surrogates of patients who survived.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
The analysis used data from one U.S. healthcare system, so it may not apply to other ICU cultures or family decision-making norms. The study followed surrogates only to about 90 days, so it does not show how regret changes over time. Regret was dichotomised into no regret or regret, and some key variables used single items, which may reduce sensitivity. Of 209 surrogates who made decisions, 51 were lost to follow-up, and the analysis included 158 surrogates. The paper analysed baseline reappraisal tendency, not a reappraisal intervention, so it cannot show that teaching reappraisal reduces regret.
Declared interests
The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest. The article metadata lists NIH extramural research support.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that teaching surrogates reappraisal will reduce regret. Reappraisal was measured as a baseline tendency, not delivered as an intervention, and the analysis did not randomise surrogates to reappraisal training.