INTRODUCTION Delirium is the most common neuropsychiatric condition in very ill patients and those at the end of life. Previous case reports found that delirium-induced disinhibition may lead to overexpression of symptoms. It negatively affects communication between patients, family members, and the medical team and can sometimes lead to inappropriate interventions. Better understanding would r...

DELIRIUM, defined as an acute decline of attention and cognitive function, represents a common and potentially devastating problem for hospitalized older persons. With occurrence rates from 14% to 56% and hospital mortality rates from 25% to 33% (1), delirium often initiates a cascade of events culminating in loss of independence, increased morbidity and mortality, and increased health care cos...

BACKGROUND Delirium is common in ill medical patients. Several drugs and polypharmacy are recognised risk factors, yet little is known about drug metabolism in people with delirium. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to investigate the activities of plasma esterases (drug metabolising enzymes) in delirium. DESIGN This was a prospective study of delirium present at time of hospital admissio...

BACKGROUND Postoperative delirium in older patients results in worse outcomes and increased costs. The prevalence and predictors of postoperative delirium in patients undergoing major colorectal surgery are not clear. OBJECTIVES To determine the prevalence and predictors of postoperative delirium in older patients after major colorectal surgery. METHODS Patients older than 50 years, without...

BACKGROUND Delirium is a serious problem when caring for a patient with cancer in the hospital. Delirium causes major risks and concerns for patients, family members, and healthcare workers, and it often goes unrecognized and has many clinical manifestations. OBJECTIVES This article aims to evaluate whether a nursing educational program on the topic of delirium would increase the nursing staf...

OBJECTIVE We aimed to determine the major risk factors for the development of delirium in patients at a single general hospital by comparison with a control group. SUBJECTS AND METHODS We reviewed the medical records of 260 delirium patients and 77 control patients. We investigated age, sex, and risk factors for delirium in the total delirium group (n=260), the delirium medical subgroup (n=14...

Delirium is the most common neuropsychiatric complication experienced by patients with advanced illness, occurring in up to 85% of patients in the last weeks of life. Using the case of Mr L, a 59-year-old man with metastatic lung cancer who developed an agitated delirium in the last week of life, we review the evaluation and management of delirium near the end of life. Although some studies hav...

BACKGROUND delirium is common and is associated with many adverse short-term consequences. OBJECTIVES to examine the relationship between an episode of delirium and subsequent dementia and death over 3 years. DESIGN prospective cohort study. SETTING patients (n = 203) were aged 65 years or older at baseline and survivors of the index admission. METHODS Using a standard assessment of cog...

Older adults who visit emergency departments (EDs) often experience delirium, but it is infrequently recognized. A systematic review was therefore conducted to identify what delirium screening tools have been used in ED-based epidemiologic studies of delirium, whether there is a validated set of screening instruments to identify delirium among older adults in the ED or prehospital environments,...

BACKGROUND Inattention is a core clinical feature of delirium and yet the particular aspects of attentional impairment associated with this feature are poorly understood. Objective methods for assessing inattention are also lacking. A new set of computerised tests of attentional deficits designed for use in patients with delirium have been developed. Test performances in patients with delirium,...