ArticleNeurocritical care2026
"I'm Happy, Considering What I've Been Through": An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis of Quality of Life after Acute Brain Injury.
Article in Neurocritical care, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundIn neurocritical care units (NCCU), decisions to withhold life-sustaining therapies are sometimes influenced by anticipated disability and quality of life (QoL) impairment, particularly when further interventions are deemed futile. However, health-related QoL (HRQoL) is inherently subjective and does not always correlate with disability levels. This qualitative, noninterventional study aimed to assess the relevance of HRQoL in ethical decision-making using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) to investigate subjective HRQoL.
methodsPatients were interviewed by a single intensivist to assess their subjective QoL 2 years after their stay in an NCCU following an acute brain injury (ABI). The intensivist directed the interview toward HRQoL using a guide comprising limited and mostly open-ended questions. Audio recordings of the interviews were transcribed verbatim into Word narratives, analyzed in depth by two intensivists using IPA methodology and NVivo 14 software to enable exploration of patients' lived experiences and personal QoL assessments.
resultsA total of 14 patients were invited to the follow-up appointment, 7 for whom life-sustaining treatment had been withheld in the NCCU and 7 matched patients for whom this decision had not been made. Among the nine patients finally included, life-sustaining treatment had been withheld in four cases. Patients varied greatly in how they perceived and valued their QoL. While most valued relationships and independence, they expressed these values in different ways. Frustration with disability and support from relatives emerged as key motivators for rehabilitation. Despite their challenges, patients expressed gratitude for survival and pride in their progress and daily achievements. Overall, their experiences highlighted the deeply personal and subjective nature of disability and QoL assessment.
conclusionsHRQoL after ABI is highly subjective and should be considered with great caution in decisions to withhold life-sustaining treatment in NCCU. Further studies are warranted to improve outcome assessment after ABI and aid ethical decision-making.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What Socratic holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.