The cognitive impairment that affects patients who survive a stay in the ICU does not appear to have a similar mechanism to Alzheimer’s disease, Vanderbilt researchers have discovered.

The phrase “working twice as hard for half as much” is one that sadly rings true for many patients who have had significant stays in an intensive care unit (ICU). Surviving a lengthy critical care experience can result in depression, weakness, fatigue and other cognitive and physical deficiencies.

Quinton Smith doesn’t remember much of what happened one Sunday evening last March. He was disoriented, unable to stand and could not even recognize his girlfriend’s face after she returned home from work.

Depression affects more than one out of three survivors of critical illness, according to a Vanderbilt study released in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine, and the majority of patients experience their symptoms physically rather than mentally.