Reasons for the Overuse of Sedatives and Deep Sedation for Mechanically Ventilated Coronavirus Disease 2019 Patients

The authors reply

“…Xiao and Zhao (1) speculate around possible reasons of the overuse of sedatives in patients with COVID-19–induced ARDS, and we agree with these thoughts: ICU providers may have been overfocused on the goal of preventing self-extubation and the associated risk of virus transmission to providers in an overburdened healthcare system. During the pandemic, often one nurse was responsible for numerous COVID-19 patients, and personal protective equipment may have not been available without restrictions.…”

“…We appreciate the comments by Xiao and Zhao (1) on our newly article published recently in Critical Care Medicine (2). Our group and others reported that patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)–induced acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) received higher doses of hypnotics than patients with ARDS of other etiologies and experienced higher acute brain dysfunction (3, 4).…”