Alvarez blog figure 1

Occupational Therapy: Strategies for Delirium Management

Contributed by Evelyn Alvarez1,2,3  & Juan Pablo Saa4 1 Centro de Estudios en Neurociencia Humana y Neuropsicología, Facultad de Psicología, Universidad Diego Portales, Chile, 2 Facultad de Ciencias de la Salud, Universidad Central de Chile, Chile, 3 Departamento de Terapia Ocupacional y Ciencia de la Ocupación, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Chile, Chile, 4 Florey […]

Kim Oosterhouse

Life Changing: Early Delirium Identification and Intervention

Contributed by Kimberly Oosterhouse, PhD, RN, CNE, Loyola University Chicago, NIDUS Pilot Grant Awardee “Kim, I think this is it; she is not responding to me. Can you please come and be with us?” These are the words I woke up to one morning 16 years ago. My distraught grandfather called me from the inpatient […]

Delirium severity: how do (or should) we conceptualise and measure it?

Contributed by Zoë Tieges, PhD, Psychology Research Fellow, Geriatric Medicine, Usher Institute, The University of Edinburgh Severity grading of delirium in research and clinical practice may have important value in monitoring clinical course and recovery, in providing prognostic information for risk stratification, in informing treatment, and as endpoints in clinical trials. Fine-grained measures of delirium […]

New Systematic Review of Instruments for Identification of Delirium

Contributed by Benjamin K. I. Helfand, MSc, MD/PhD (candidate), University of Massachusetts Medical School Delirium affects approximately 3 million older Americans annually, accounting for over $164 billion in healthcare expenditures.1 Delirium disproportionately affects our older population (over age 65) with major public health implications. Development of delirium is associated with prolonged hospitalization, cognitive decline, and […]

Row of lightbulbs with one illuminated bulb in center

Delirium and the Power of Storytelling

Contributed by Heidi Lindroth, PhD RN, T32 Postdoctoral Fellow, Indiana University School of Medicine, Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Center for Health Innovation and Implementation Science The COVID-19 pandemic has brought the terror of delirium to the forefront. Featured articles in the New York Times, the Atlantic, and others, have highlighted the enormous […]

Roberta Esteves Vieira de Castro

Brain Basis of Post-Stroke Delirium

Contributed by Roberta Esteves Vieira de Castro, MD, PhD, Rio de Janeiro State University, D’Or Institute for Research and Education, Latin American Delirium Special Interest Group, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Delirium is a frequent and malignant aggravation succeeding stroke1,2, with an estimated occurrence ranging from 2 to 66%3,4. It may be a direct consequence of […]

Namrata Patil

A researcher becomes a patient experiencing delirium

Contributed by Namrata Patil, M.D., M.P.H., Faculty at Brigham & Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston April 2020 I pulled my blanket tighter as I started sipping on my warm tea. All of a sudden, I saw a couple of big ants crawling on the floor. I pulled my legs up before the ants […]

The Ultra-Brief Confusion Assessment Method (UB-CAM): A New Approach for Rapid Diagnosis of CAM-Defined Delirium

Contributed by Edward R. Marcantonio MD SM, Donna M. Fick, RN PhD, Richard N. Jones ScD, Sharon K Inouye MD MPH The 3D-CAM. As discussed previously on NIDUS, the Confusion Assessment Method (CAM)1 has a 30-year track record during which it has become the standard for delirium identification in both clinical care and research. Moreover, […]

Screening for delirium with the Confusion Assessment Method (CAM)

Contributed by Sharon K. Inouye, M.D., MPH; Richard N. Jones, ScD; Edward R. Marcantonio, M.D., SM Overview The Confusion Assessment Method (CAM) was published in 19901 in a highly cited article in the Annals of Internal Medicine as the first brief, standardized method for identification of delirium at the bedside. It provided a standardized rating […]