Delirium: an important (but often unrecognized) clinical syndrome
Related Experiment Video
Updated: Oct 1, 2026

SECONDs Administration Guidelines: A Fast Tool to Assess Consciousness in Brain-injured Patients
Published on: February 6, 2021
1Department of Psychiatry, University of Vermont College of Medicine and Fletcher Allen Health Care, 111 Colchester Avenue, Burlington, VT 05401, USA. terry.rabinowitz@vtmednet.org
Abstract:
Delirium is a clinical syndrome characterized by the acute onset of a disturbance in consciousness accompanied by a reduced ability to focus, sustain, or shift attention. It may foreshadow impending death in as many as 25% of hospitalized inpatients and may be a source of significant morbidity in those who present with this syndrome. The disorder may go unrecognized by hospital staff as well as those close to an affected individual, and this oversight may lead to poorer outcomes including longer lengths of stay in acute care hospitals, the need for nursing home placement, prolonged cognitive disturbances, and protracted disability. This paper will address this complex condition, focusing on its history, definition, epidemiology, pathophysiology, recognition, risk factors, and clinical quantification. Its prevention and treatment will be covered elsewhere in this journal.
Related Concept Videos
Dementia l: Introduction
Dissociative Disorders
Dissociative Fugue
A hallmark feature of dissociative disorders is the dissociative fugue...
Dementia
The progression of dementia is generally gradual.
Alzheimer Disease l: Introduction
Positive Symptoms of Schizophrenia: Hallucinations and Delusions
Thought Disorders
Disorganized and unusual thought processes mark thought disorders in schizophrenia. One key feature is disorganized speech, where an individual's conversation includes loosely...
Positive Symptoms Schizophrenia: Hallucinations and Delusions
Hallucinations
Hallucinations in...