Inflammatory Biomarkers and Neurotransmitter Perturbations in Delirium

Delirium is an acute neuropsychiatric syndrome characterized by acute changes in cognition (e.g., perceptual distortions, impairment in abstract thinking, memory impairment, disorientation), psychomotor alterations (e.g., hyper- or hypoactivity), disturbances in the circadian sleep-wake cycle, emotional disturbance (e.g., irritability, anger, fear, anxiety, perplexity), and altered level of consciousness and attention (e.g., reduced ability to direct, focus, sustain, and shift attention). Delirium’s prevalence surpasses that of all other psychiatric syndromes in every medical unit in which it has been studied, from the general medical setting (between 15% and 60%), among the elderly admitted to a general hospital (between 6% and 46%), in the postoperative setting (between 10% and 74%), and in up to 87% of critically ill patients in the intensive care units.