Cognitive Disorders and Delirium (PDQ®): Supportive care - Health Professional Information [NCI]

Add save! | | |
 

The clinical presentation of cognitive disorders and delirium is associated with a high level of distress in patients, family members, and health care personnel.[1,2,3] Delirium is associated with a high burden of symptom distress, particularly in relation to delusions, perceptual disturbances, and psychomotor agitation. Incontinence, falls, failure to maintain adequate hydration, a prolonged hospital stay, and death are more likely to occur in the patient with delirium.[4,5,6,7,8,9,10]

Dysfunctional cognition in the delirious patient hinders communication between patient and family and between patient and health care personnel. As a result, reliable symptom assessment, counseling, and active patient participation in the therapeutic decision-making process are all compromised.[11] Psychomotor agitation and emotional lability in the delirious patient may be misinterpreted as a presentation of increased pain expression.[12] Consequently, conflict can arise among the patient, family, and staff concerning the level of analgesia needed. A potentially destructive triangle can develop when the patient's family misinterprets agitation as increased pain and advocates for inappropriate escalation of opioid dosing.[13]

A psychosocial intervention for family caregivers of patients with advanced cancer may be beneficial in providing knowledge of delirium and detection rates and in increasing family caregiver self-confidence in decision making.[14]

References:

  1. Breitbart W, Gibson C, Tremblay A: The delirium experience: delirium recall and delirium-related distress in hospitalized patients with cancer, their spouses/caregivers, and their nurses. Psychosomatics 43 (3): 183-94, 2002 May-Jun.
  2. Morita T, Hirai K, Sakaguchi Y, et al.: Family-perceived distress from delirium-related symptoms of terminally ill cancer patients. Psychosomatics 45 (2): 107-13, 2004 Mar-Apr.
  3. Cohen MZ, Pace EA, Kaur G, et al.: Delirium in advanced cancer leading to distress in patients and family caregivers. J Palliat Care 25 (3): 164-71, 2009.
  4. Lawlor PG, Gagnon B, Mancini IL, et al.: Occurrence, causes, and outcome of delirium in patients with advanced cancer: a prospective study. Arch Intern Med 160 (6): 786-94, 2000.
  5. Bruera E, Miller L, McCallion J, et al.: Cognitive failure in patients with terminal cancer: a prospective study. J Pain Symptom Manage 7 (4): 192-5, 1992.
  6. Hogan DB: Revisiting the O complex: urinary incontinence, delirium and polypharmacy in elderly patients. CMAJ 157 (8): 1071-7, 1997.
  7. O'Keeffe ST, Lavan JN: Clinical significance of delirium subtypes in older people. Age Ageing 28 (2): 115-9, 1999.
  8. Lawlor PG: Delirium and dehydration: some fluid for thought? Support Care Cancer 10 (6): 445-54, 2002.
  9. O'Keeffe S, Lavan J: The prognostic significance of delirium in older hospital patients. J Am Geriatr Soc 45 (2): 174-8, 1997.
  10. Caraceni A, Nanni O, Maltoni M, et al.: Impact of delirium on the short term prognosis of advanced cancer patients. Italian Multicenter Study Group on Palliative Care. Cancer 89 (5): 1145-9, 2000.
  11. Lawlor PG, Fainsinger RL, Bruera ED: Delirium at the end of life: critical issues in clinical practice and research. JAMA 284 (19): 2427-9, 2000.
  12. Gagnon B, Lawlor PG, Mancini IL, et al.: The impact of delirium on the circadian distribution of breakthrough analgesia in advanced cancer patients. J Pain Symptom Manage 22 (4): 826-33, 2001.
  13. Fainsinger RL, Tapper M, Bruera E: A perspective on the management of delirium in terminally ill patients on a palliative care unit. J Palliat Care 9 (3): 4-8, 1993 Autumn.
  14. Gagnon P, Charbonneau C, Allard P, et al.: Delirium in advanced cancer: a psychoeducational intervention for family caregivers. J Palliat Care 18 (4): 253-61, 2002 Winter.

Purpose of This Summary

This PDQ cancer information summary for health professionals provides comprehensive, peer-reviewed, evidence-based information about the pathophysiology and treatment of cognitive disorders and delirium. It is intended as a resource to inform and assist clinicians who care for cancer patients. It does not provide formal guidelines or recommendations for making health care decisions.

Reviewers and Updates

This summary is reviewed regularly and updated as necessary by the PDQ Supportive and Palliative Care Editorial Board. Board members review recently published articles each month to determine whether an article should:

  • be discussed at a meeting,
  • be cited with text, or
  • replace or update an existing article that is already cited.

Changes to the summaries are made through a consensus process in which Board members evaluate the strength of the evidence in the published articles and determine how the article should be included in the summary.

Any comments or questions about the summary content should be submitted to Cancer.gov through the Web site's Contact Form. Do not contact the individual Board Members with questions or comments about the summaries. Board members will not respond to individual inquiries.

Levels of Evidence

Some of the reference citations in this summary are accompanied by a level-of-evidence designation. These designations are intended to help readers assess the strength of the evidence supporting the use of specific interventions or approaches. The PDQ Supportive and Palliative Care Editorial Board uses a formal evidence ranking system in developing its level-of-evidence designations.

Permission to Use This Summary

PDQ is a registered trademark. Although the content of PDQ documents can be used freely as text, it cannot be identified as an NCI PDQ cancer information summary unless it is presented in its entirety and is regularly updated. However, an author would be permitted to write a sentence such as "NCI's PDQ cancer information summary about breast cancer prevention states the risks succinctly: [include excerpt from the summary]."

The preferred citation for this PDQ summary is:

National Cancer Institute: PDQ® Cognitive Disorders and Delirium. Bethesda, MD: National Cancer Institute. Date last modified <MM/DD/YYYY>. Available at: http://cancer.gov/cancertopics/pdq/supportivecare/delirium/HealthProfessional. Accessed <MM/DD/YYYY>.

Images in this summary are used with permission of the author(s), artist, and/or publisher for use within the PDQ summaries only. Permission to use images outside the context of PDQ information must be obtained from the owner(s) and cannot be granted by the National Cancer Institute. Information about using the illustrations in this summary, along with many other cancer-related images, is available in Visuals Online, a collection of over 2,000 scientific images.

Disclaimer

The information in these summaries should not be used as a basis for insurance reimbursement determinations. More information on insurance coverage is available on Cancer.gov on the Coping with Cancer: Financial, Insurance, and Legal Information page page.

Contact Us

More information about contacting us or receiving help with the Cancer.gov Web site can be found on our Contact Us for Help page. Questions can also be submitted to Cancer.gov through the Web site's Contact Form.

Last Revised: 2011-02-04

© 1995-2011 Healthwise, Incorporated. Healthwise, Healthwise for every health decision, and the Healthwise logo are trademarks of Healthwise, Incorporated. This information does not replace the advice of a doctor. Healthwise, Incorporated disclaims any warranty or liability for your use of this information. Your use of this information means that you agree to the Terms of Use. How this information was developed to help you make better health decisions.

Advertisement

See All Boards

find discussions about...

See All Tools

See All News