Delirium

Delirium is a common and often serious neuropsychiatric complication in palliative care settings that is characterized by concurrent disturbances in the level of alertness, awareness, attention, thinking, perception, memory, psychomotor behavior, mood, and sleep–wake cycle. Delirium is associated with significant morbidity and mortality. Increased health-care costs, prolonged hospital stays, and long-term cognitive decline are well-recognized outcomes of delirium. Delirium can interfere dramatically with the recognition and control of other physical and psychological symptoms such as pain in later stages of illness. Delirium is one of the most common mental disorders encountered in general hospital practice. Delirium is highly prevalent in cancer and AIDS patients with advanced disease, particularly in the terminally ill patients in the last weeks of life, with prevalence rates ranging from 20 to 88%. Many of the clinical features and symptoms of delirium can also be associated with other psychiatric disorders such as depression, mania, psychosis, and dementia.