Clinico-etiological profiles in patients with delirium in intensive care unit setting

• Published in: Telangana Journal of Psychiatry Vol. 7; no. 1; pp. 35 - 41
• Main Authors: Reddy, Indukuri, Kulkarni, Pavan, Gudlavallety, Preeti, Gollepally, Pragathi, Sriperumbudur, Gopinath
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Wolters Kluwer India Pvt. Ltd 01.01.2021; Wolters Kluwer Medknow Publications
• Subjects: clinico-etiological profile; delirium; intensive care unit; phenomenology; phenomenology; intensive care unit; Clinico-etiological profile; delirium
• ISSN: 2455-8559
• DOI: 10.4103/tjp.tjp_14_21

Background: Delirium is a neuropsychiatric disorder with a prevalence ranging from 16% to 53.6% in India. Although delirium is characterized as a unitary syndrome, not all symptoms follow the same trajectory over the course. Hence, there is a necessity for a larger number of studies to understand these phenomenological and etiological profiles across different regions in India. Aim: To study the clinico-etiological variables and phenomenological profile in delirium in the intensive care unit (ICU) setting. Materials and Methods: A longitudinal prospective study was conducted in a tertiary care hospital including all consecutive delirium patients who referred to the psychiatry department from ICU. All the participants' socioeconomic data were obtained and were administered. Charlson comorbidity index, Neelon and Champagne confusion scale, Richmond agitation sedation scale, delirium etiology checklist, delirium revised scale, revised-98, descriptive statistics, and ANOVA were used for statistical analysis. Results: Out of 51 study population, the mean age was 57.82 ± 17.19 years, with male preponderance and belonging to lower-middle and upper-lower class. 70.58% of the patients were found to have moderate-severe delirium. Majority of the referral population are from general medicine and of hyperactive delirium. There is no association established with the number of drugs and comorbidities with delirium severity. Metabolic disturbances are most common; sleep-wake cycle disturbance has the highest score and also the most common feature in delirium severity. Conclusion: Majority of the cases who were referred are male in moderate-severe stage and hyperactive delirium. As the detection of cases is challenging in the ICU settings, better understanding of the underlined etiological and phenomenological profiles may aid in easy identification of delirium cases at early stages.