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Delirium in patients has well-documented adverse physical and mental outcomes. Delirium impairs patients' capacity to grasp and retain information, thus affecting their right to informed consent and active participation in treatment and care decisions. In Danish hospitals, delirium afflicts up to 50% of the elderly patients, yet it often goes unreported due to the absence of systematic screening. The selection of a screening tool should be contextually relevant. This review gives an overview of delirium screening instruments available in Danish, each with distinct advantages and disadvantages., (Published under Open Access CC-BY-NC-BD 4.0. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.)

Within psychiatry, no treatment is as effective - or controversial - as electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), and ECT is the only non-pharmacological treatment in widespread clinical psychiatry. The history of ECT as a psychiatric treatment is outlined in this review, and the efficacy in four diagnostic entities is reviewed along with side effects. The evidence shows compelling effect of ECT when administered within affective disorders, delirium and psychotic states.

Delirium is a common neuropsychiatric complication to acute physical illness in older, hospitalized patients. It is associated with a poor outcome. The pathophysiogenesis is unknown. The neurochemical and neuroinflammatory hypotheses are supported increasingly. Short-term, low-dose haloperidole is still the best choice of treatment in controlling symptoms in hyperactive delirium, but atypical antipsychotics are probably equally efficacious. Antipsychotics also appear to have a beneficial role in hypoactive delirium, but the evidence is weak. There is a weak evidence of effect of prophylactic, non-pharmacological interventions.

Delirium is a common and often under-recognised neuropsychiatric disorder in paediatric critical care, secondary to a general medical condition. Paediatric delirium (PD) is associated with high morbidity and mortality and prolonged stay at the intensive care unit. This review introduces the reader to PD and focuses on diagnostic tools, prognosis and treatment. The literature about PD is sparse. In order to make recommendations about PD based on evidence more clinical studies are urgently needed.

Hydration of the terminal patient may relieve confusion and complaints of "dry mouth". But it may worsen oedema of the brain, lungs, and extremities, worsen terminal rattling and cause a need for frequent changing of diapers. The decision of whether and how to treat a dying patient with fluids should therefore be an integral part of the terminal treatment plan. Such plans should be discussed with the patient and the relatives, and it will very likely need to be revised as the condition worsens.

Introduction: Although delirium is a reversible cerebral syndrome, the effect of treatment of the elderly is unsatisfactory, involving prolonged hospitalizations and increased risk of relapse and mortality. The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether hospitalization for delirium (severe delirium) diagnosed by ICD-10 criteria predicts increased morbidity, utilization of health services and mortality., Materials and Methods: Delirious inpatients (n = 26) discharged after treatment in an old-age psychiatric university clinic were studied for nine years. In a register-based design, the above-mentioned parameters of the delirium cohort were compared with a group of controls (n = 116)., Results: There was a trend to increased mortality in the delirium cohort. Compared with the controls, the delirium cohort had a significantly increased incidence of disorders of vital organs, serious psychiatric disorders, particularly depression, increased use of hospital psychiatry and general practitioner's out-of-hours service, but less use of office-hour services. The incidence of delirium in the cohorts was low. In the delirium cohort, there was no significantly increased use of services or the number of diagnoses in somatic hospitals., Conclusion: Increased somatic and psychiatric morbidity and a trend to increased mortality indicate a serious prognosis after severe delirium in the elderly. It is noteworthy that the delirium cohort had increased use of GPs' out-of-hours services but less use of office-hour services.

The purposes of the study were to account for aetiology, treatment concept, outcome of treatment, and discharge destination of delirious elderly inpatients. During one year all patients in a psychogeriatric university department were assessed on admission and at discharge with a selection of assessments measuring psychopathology, behavioural disorders, depressive symptoms, intellectual functioning, activities of daily living, and gait. Diagnoses were made according to the ICD-10 criteria for research. All patients with a principal diagnosis of delirium (n = 26) are accounted for. Delirious patients improved their health status significantly in all the assessments, and 86% of patients admitted from independent living were discharged to independent living. It is concluded that elderly inpatients with severe or prolonged delirium profit significantly from the treatment concept in all of the rated health aspects.