Knowledge about neuropsychiatric outcomes after ExtraCorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) support during an intensive care (ICU) stay is highly relevant for optimizing patient selection, guiding ECMO management, tailoring follow-up care, and determining (cost) effectiveness of ECMO support in subgroups of patients.

A recent study in health administrative databases [1] found that ECMO increased rates of new mental health diagnosis among critically ill patients in the ICU. Two other studies report high incidences of self-reported symptom levels of anxiety (26% and 55%, respectively), depression (32% and 36%) and post-traumatic stress (42% and 33%) in ECMO survivors after three and 24 months, similar to general ICU survivors [2,3]. However, these studies were small (n = 19 and n = 22) and did not address the effects of wakeful states of consciousness during ECMO support, which could potentiate the development of neuropsychiatric symptoms [4].

In this study, we described self-reported neuropsychiatric symptoms one year after discharge in ECMO and comparable non-ECMO ICU survivors. Additionally, we evaluated the association between wakeful states of consciousness during ECMO support and neuropsychiatric symptoms.