Delirium in the Emergency Department: Novel Screening

Delirium is an acute confusional state characterized by altered or fluctuating mental status, inattention, and either disorganized thinking or an altered level of consciousness. This form of organ dysfunction occurs in up to 10% of older emergency department (ED) patients and is associated with worsening mortality, prolonged hospital length of stay, higher health care costs, and accelerated functional and cognitive decline. Despite the negative consequences of delirium, the majority of cases are unrecognized by emergency physicians because it is not routinely screened for. In an effort to facilitate delirium screening, the investigators sought to validate three brief delirium assessments in the ED setting.

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Key information

Conditions

Delirium Confusion Disease Mental Disorders Nervous System Diseases Neurobehavioral Manifestations Neurocognitive Disorders Neurologic Manifestations Pathologic Processes Pathological Conditions, Signs and Symptoms Signs and Symptoms

Age range

65 year and older

Sex eligibility

All sexes

Study type

Observational

Primary location

Vanderbilt University Medical Center

Nashville, Tennessee, 37232, United States

About this study

Delirium is often missed because emergency physicians do not routinely screen for this diagnosis. Most delirium assessments can take up to 10 minutes to perform making them less likely to be incorporated into the routine physician assessment. Using brief (<2 minutes) and easy to use delirium assessments may ameliorate this quality of care issue. The Confusion Assessment Method for the Intensive Care Unit (CAM-ICU) possesses these characteristics, but has only been validated in mechanically and non-mechanically ventilated intensive care unit patients. Recently, the investigators also developed the Brief Confusion Assessment Method (B-CAM) which is a modification of the CAM-ICU. The benefit is that it takes even less time than the CAM-ICU. The investigators also developed the Emergency Department Delirium Triage Screen (ED-DTS) designed to be highly sensitive and moderately specific delirium assessment for the nurse's triage assessment. It is hypothesized that a negative ED-DTS would rule out delirium, while a positive ED-DTS would require a more formal delirium assessment such as the CAM-ICU and B-CAM. These new delirium assessments require validation in older ED patients. As result, the investigators propose the following and the following specific aims:

Aim #1: To validate the B-CAM in older ED patients. The B-CAM will be performed by a clinical trials associate (CTA) and principal investigator in 200 ED patients that are > 65 years old. This instrument will be validated against a psychiatrist's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th. Edition Text Revision assessment as the reference standard.

Aim #2: To validate the CAM-ICU in older ED patients. The CAM-ICU will be performed by a clinical trials associate (CTA) and principal investigator in approximately 200 ED patients that are > 65 years old. This instrument will be validated against a psychiatrist's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th. Edition Text Revision assessment as the reference standard.

Aim #3: To validate the ED-DTS in older ED patients. The ED-DTS will be performed by a clinical trials associate (CTA) and principal investigator in 200 ED patients that are > 65 years old. This instrument will be validated against a psychiatrist's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th. Edition Text Revision assessment as the reference standard.

Who can participate

Healthy volunteers accepted: No

Only the study team can determine whether someone qualifies for participation.

Inclusion criteria

65 years of age or greater
In the Emergency Department for less than 12 hour at the time of enrollment

Exclusion criteria

Severe mental retardation or dementia
Baseline communication barriers such as aphasia, deafness, blindness, or who are unable to speak English
Refusal of consent
Previous enrollment
Comatose
Out of the hospital before the assessments are completed

Treatment and study plan

Primary outcomes

Delirium

Time frame: Within 3 hours of the study assessments.

Delirium was diagnosed by a consultation-liaison psychiatrist assessment using Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, Text Revision (DSM-IV-TR) criteria. The psychiatrists performed a battery of bedside cognitive tests, including (but not limited to) Clock Drawing Test, Luria hand sequencing task, and tests for verbal fluency. A focused neurological examination (i.e., screening for paraphasic errors, tremors, tone, asterixis, frontal release signs etc.,) and evaluation for affective lability, hallucinations, and level of alertness were also conducted routinely. Confrontational naming, proverb interpretation or similarities, and assessments for apraxias were performed at the discretion of the reference psychiatrists, especially if the diagnosis of delirium was inconclusive.

Sponsors and collaborators

Lead sponsor

Vanderbilt University Medical Center

Other

Registry information

Important dates

Study start: 2009
Primary completion: 2012
Study completion: 2012
First posted: Jul 14, 2010
Registry last updated: May 3, 2018

OpenTrials presents study information sourced from ClinicalTrials.gov. The official registry record should be consulted for the latest information.

View the official ClinicalTrials.gov record (opens in a new tab)

This listing is for discovery and informational purposes only. It is not medical advice, does not guarantee that a study is recruiting, and does not determine eligibility. Contact the study team and a qualified healthcare professional when considering participation.

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Completed