Recently, Dr. Ed Marcantonio, NIDUS Delirium Research Hub Leader, created a list of 10 Questions about the NIDUS Delirium Research Hub. Below is a preview of the list: 1) What is the NIDUS Delirium Research Hub? The Delirium Research Hub, one of five NIDUS cores, is a repository of meta-data (like a “table of contents”) […]
Category Archives: Delirium Research
Using Qualitative Approaches to Understand the Subjective Experience of Postoperative Delirium
Contributed by Kelly Atkins, DPsych (Clin Neuro), Melbourne Medical School, University of Melbourne. Our Research Question Postoperative delirium is the most common adverse outcome affecting older adults after surgery and is associated with a cascade of negative outcomes1, 2. While research activity in the field of postoperative delirium has exploded, the subjective experience of postoperative […]
What is the preferred delirium screening tool in the post-anesthetic care unit?
Contributed by Rami K. Aldwikat1, Elizabeth Manias2, Alex C. Holmes3, Emily Tomlinson1 and Patricia Nicholson1 1 School of Nursing and Midwifery; Centre for Quality and Patient Safety Research in The Institute for Health Transformation, Geelong, Vic, Australia 2 School of Nursing and Midwifery, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, Australia 3 Department of Mental Health, The Royal […]
Postoperative Delirium and Biomarkers of Alzheimer’s Disease: What We Know and What We Need to Know
Contributed by Dr. Sophia Wang, MD, MS, Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychiatry, Indiana University School of Medicine Postoperative delirium affects 15-50% of older adults undergoing major surgery.1 The literature strongly supports a bidirectional relationship between delirium and dementia.2 While both delirium and dementia affect cognition, they are quite different in their clinical presentations. Delirium is […]
Association between Symptom Domains of Delirium and Outcomes in Hospitalised Adults
Contributed by Zoë Tieges, PhD, Psychology Research Fellow, Geriatric Medicine, Usher Institute, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK Research question: do patients with delirium experience poorer outcomes when they have certain symptoms? Delirium is a syndrome with a wide spectrum of clinical presentations. According to DSM-5 (and the recent DSM-5 Text Revision) criteria, the key […]
The Posterior Dominant Rhythm: A Proof-of-Principle Study Whether it is an Electroencephalographic Biomarker for Tracking Delirium Onset and Recovery
Contributed by Ben Julian A. Palanca, MD, PhD, MSc, Associate Professor of Anesthesiology, Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis; Affiliated Faculty, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Washington University; Director, Sleepy Brain Lab Predictive biomarkers for prognosticating delirium onset and severity are needed for targeting interventions that may prevent delirium onset. […]
Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor (SSRI) Use and Delirium Occurrence in the ICU
Contributed by C. Adrian Austin, MD, MSCR, Divisions of Geriatric Medicine and Pulmonary Diseases and Critical Care Medicine, University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, NC Anxiety, depression and ICU delirium may be linked.1 Approximately 10% of the U.S. population takes an antidepressant, most commonly a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI).2 It remains […]
A Conceptual Framework for Social Determinants of Health and Delirium (SDOH)
Franchesca Arias, PhD Assistant Professor, Department of Clinical and Health Psychology, University of Florida By 2050 it is expected that over 22% of the global population will be >60 years old.1 Late adulthood is a unique life stage2 associated with distinct cognitive vulnerabilities and medical needs. Of those ≥ 65 years old in the United […]
Clinical Outcomes Following Implementation of a Hospital-Wide, Multicomponent Delirium Care Pathway: A Before-After Quality Improvement Study
Sara LaHue, MD Assistant Professor of Clinical Neurology, University of California, San Francisco We cannot improve upon what we do not measure. While data suggests that more than 7 million adults in the United States develop delirium each year, this is likely an underestimate as delirium is poorly recognized without systematic screening.1 Delirium itself is […]
The Consequences of Unwarranted Pharmacologic Treatment of ICU Delirium
Christina Boncyk, MD, MPH Assistant Professor of Anesthesiology, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN The generally positive results of older controlled studies evaluating antipsychotics for intensive care unit (ICU) delirium treatment helped potentiate the routine use of these agents in critically ill adults despite the serious limitations of these studies.1-3 While more recent publications of […]