Delirium, The Geriatrics Ward Challenge

Delirium or acute confusion state is a medical emergency, characterized by altered mental status with fluctuating deficits in attention and cognition. It’s an important cause of morbidity and mortality. Even though most of the causes are secondary to medical conditions and after they are solved, the delirium disappear, there are cases that it can persist for weeks and months. Many risk factors are known, such as polypharmacy, restraint use, multiple illness, frailty, advanced age. Instruments like CAM (Confusion Assessment Method) can be useful to diagnose and non-pharmacological measures with low-dose antipsychotic drugs can be helpful in its resolution.

Author(s): Pardo Pastor Ricardo Fernandes, Rafaela Veríssimo and António Agripino Oliveira

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