Giving family members the choice to observe out-of-hospital cardiopulmonary resuscitation on a loved one might reduce psychological stress, according to a New England Journal of Medicinestudy.

Nearly 600 family members of people undergoing out-of-hospital CPR in France were either routinely asked (intervention) or not asked (control) if they wanted to be present during CPR. At 90 days, the control group had a higher prevalence of PTSD-related symptoms than the intervention group (37% vs. 27%). Interference by family members was rare, and there were no lawsuits.

Editorialists, noting that the intervention included a well-scripted protocol, conclude: “It would be imprudent to adopt this strategy into clinical practice without a similar commitment to training and staffing emergency response teams and without an understanding of the cost-effectiveness.”

Source: NEJM