Delirium

Abstract

Delirium is one of the most common psychiatric syndromes found in the general hospital setting. Phenomenologically, delirium is an acute or subacute organic mental syndrome characterized by disturbance of consciousness, global cognitive impairment, disorientation, perceptual disturbance, deficits in attention, changes in psychomotor activity, disordered sleep–wake cycle, and fluctuation in symptom severity. Mechanistically, delirium is a neurobehavioral syndrome caused by the transient disruption of normal neuronal activity secondary to disturbances of systemic physiology.