Delirium News and Research

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Delirium is a mental state in which a person is confused, disoriented, and not able to think or remember clearly. The person may also be agitated and have hallucinations, and extreme excitement.

Researchers explore use of antipsychotic medications in older adults following heart surgery

Delirium is the medical term for an abrupt, rapid change in mental function that goes well beyond the typical forgetfulness of aging.

21 Aug 2018

Lighter sedation fails to reduce risk of postoperative delirium in older patients

Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers say a study designed to see if reducing the amount of anesthesia reduces the risk of postoperative delirium in older patients surprisingly found that lighter sedation failed to do so in severely ill people undergoing hip fracture repair.

13 Aug 2018

FDA requires safety labeling changes for fluoroquinolones to strengthen warnings on adverse reactions

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today is requiring safety labeling changes for a class of antibiotics called fluoroquinolones to strengthen the warnings about the risks of mental health side effects and serious blood sugar disturbances, and make these warnings more consistent across the labeling for all fluoroquinolones taken by mouth or given by injection.

11 Jul 2018

Researchers identify tools that caregivers could use to detect delirium in older adults

Delirium is a sudden change in mental status that often occurs when older adults are in the hospital or after they have surgery. More than 20 percent of older adults may experience delirium.

23 Apr 2018

Middle ear infection can lead to deadly neurological complications

While antibiotics have greatly reduced the dangers of ear infections, serious neurological complications, including hearing loss, facial paralysis, meningitis and brain abscess still occur, according to an article in the journal Current Neurology and Neuroscience Reports.

16 Apr 2018

What we know and don’t know about memory loss after surgery

Two years ago, Dr. Daniel Cole's 85-year-old father had heart bypass surgery. He hasn't been quite the same since.

12 Apr 2018

Researchers explore ways to help older adults taper off and stop using sedatives

Older adults, especially those who are admitted to hospitals, are at risk for potentially dangerous side effects if they are taking multiple medicines. Taking several medications at the same time is called polypharmacy.

23 Mar 2018

Six tips for seniors to help limit confusion after surgery

The longer you live the more likely you will develop a medical condition that requires surgery or a procedure. In fact, half of all people 65 and older will have at least one surgical procedure in their lifetime.

13 Mar 2018

Older adults with dementia more likely to be readmitted to hospital after discharge

About 25 percent of older adults admitted to hospitals have dementia and are at increased risk for serious problems like in-hospital falls and delirium (the medical term for an abrupt, rapid change in mental function). As a result, older adults with dementia are more likely to do poorly during hospital stays compared to older adults without dementia.

23 Feb 2018

Prophylactic use of haloperidol does not reduce delirium burden

Prophylactic use of the drug haloperidol does not help to prevent delirium in intensive care patients or improve their chances of survival. Therefore, there is no reason anymore to administer the drug as a preventive measure to reduce the burden of delirium.

21 Feb 2018

ED-based geriatrics transition care nurse helps avoid hospital admissions

When older adults arrive at a hospital's emergency department (ED), they may face unexpected challenges. For example, they may become less able to function independently.

12 Jan 2018

Emergency department program reduces unnecessary admission of older patients by 33%

Roughly one third of all older patients age 65 and older visiting emergency departments nationwide are admitted to the hospital.

12 Jan 2018

For elder health, trips to the ER are often a tipping point

Twice a day, the 86-year-old man went for long walks and visited with neighbors along the way. Then, one afternoon he fell while mowing his lawn. In the emergency room, doctors diagnosed a break in his upper arm and put him in a sling.

11 Jan 2018

New program improves outcomes for older people undergoing elective surgery

Compared to younger adults, older people have higher rates of complications from surgery. But many problems can be avoided by intervening with assessments and risk-reduction strategies before, during and after procedures.

5 Jan 2018

CAR T cell therapy shows long-lasting remissions in non-Hodgkin's lymphoma patients

In a pair of clinical trials stretching from Philadelphia to Tokyo, the chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy Kymriah (formerly known as CTL019) demonstrated long-lasting remissions in non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) patients.

11 Dec 2017

Delirium severity in post-surgical patients linked to level of cognitive decline

Researchers from the Harvard affiliated Hebrew SeniorLife Institute for Aging Research, in collaboration with scientists from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, and Brown University, have found increasing evidence that the level of delirium in post-surgical patients is associated with the level of later cognitive decline in those same patients.

28 Nov 2017

Researchers propose theory for high incidence of post-stroke delirium and spatial neglect

Stroke researchers at Kessler Foundation have proposed a theory for the high incidence of delirium and spatial neglect after right-brain stroke. Their findings are detailed in "Disruption of the ascending arousal system and cortical attention network in post-stroke delirium and spatial neglect," which was published online ahead of print on September 27, 2017 by Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews.

21 Nov 2017

HELP program for older adults reduces hospital readmissions rates

The Hospital Elder Life Program, or HELP, is an evidence-based treatment plan developed in the 1990s to prevent hospitalized older adults from developing delirium (the medical term for sudden confusion).

9 Nov 2017

Researchers identify factors that predict frailty transitions in older men

As we age, we may be less able to perform daily activities because we may feel frail, or weaker than we have in the past. Frailer older adults may walk more slowly and have less energy. Frailty also raises a person's risks for falling, breaking a bone, becoming hospitalized, developing delirium, and dying.

8 Sep 2017

$Novartis gets FDA approval for novel immunocellular therapy to treat relapsed or refractory B-cell ALL$

Novartis gets FDA approval for novel immunocellular therapy to treat relapsed or refractory B-cell ALL

Novartis announced today that the US Food and Drug Administration has approved Kymriah (tisagenlecleucel) suspension for intravenous infusion, formerly CTL019, the first chimeric antigen receptor T cell (CAR-T) therapy, for the treatment of patients up to 25 years of age with B-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) that is refractory or in second or later relapse.

30 Aug 2017