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.
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