{"id":2301,"date":"2017-11-06T22:08:06","date_gmt":"2017-11-06T22:08:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medicalcriteria.com\/web\/psydel2\/"},"modified":"2026-03-02T19:14:40","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T19:14:40","slug":"psydel2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medicalcriteria.com\/web\/psydel2\/","title":{"rendered":"Diagnostic Criteria for Delirium"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"99c380e4b4a7b96c35d7ddf7dcb434e8\" data-index=\"1\" style=\"float: none; margin:0px 0 0px 0; text-align:center;\">\n<script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- MC 2019- Horizontal -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-0127150553352455\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"3806776041\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script>\n<\/div>\n<p>Delirium is also known as\u00a0acute confusional state, altered mental status, and toxic metabolic encephalopathy,\u00a0among more than 30 descriptive terms. Delirium can be thought of as acute brain\u00a0failure and is the final common pathway of multiple mechanisms, similar to acute\u00a0heart failure. The official definition of delirium in the Diagnostic and Statistical\u00a0Manual of Mental Disorders, fifth edition (DSM-5), requires a disturbance in attention\u00a0and awareness that develops acutely and tends to fluctuate. The pathophysiological\u00a0mechanisms of delirium remain poorly understood; leading models\u00a0include neurotransmitter imbalance and neuroinflammation.<br \/>\n<!--more--><\/p>\n<p><strong>Diagnostic Criteria for Delirium<\/strong><br \/>\n<b>DSM-5<\/b><br \/>\nThe presence of delirium requires all the criteria to be met:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Disturbance in attention and awareness<\/li>\n<li>Disturbance develops acutely and tends to fluctuate in severity<\/li>\n<li>At least one additional disturbance in cognition<\/li>\n<li>Disturbances are not better explained by a preexisting dementia<\/li>\n<li>Disturbances do not occur in the context of a severely reduced level of arousal or coma<\/li>\n<li>Evidence of an underlying organic cause or causes<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Confusion Assessment Method (CAM)<\/b><br \/>\nThe presence of delirium requires features 1 and 2 and either 3 or 4:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Acute change in mental status with a fluctuating course (feature 1)<\/li>\n<li>Inattention (feature 2)<\/li>\n<li>Disorganized thinking (feature 3)<\/li>\n<li>Altered level of consciousness (feature 4)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>References:<\/b><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Marcantonio ER. Delirium in Hospitalized Older Adults.\u00a0N Engl J Med. 2017 Oct 12;377(15):1456-1466. <a href=\"https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/29020579\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">[Medline]<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Setters B, Solberg LM. Delirium.\u00a0Prim Care. 2017 Sep;44(3):541-559. <a href=\"https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/28797379\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">[Medline]<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Alonso-Crespo D, Rodr\u00edguez-Mond\u00e9jar JJ, Leal-Costa C. Scoping review of the evolution of delirium detection, diagnostic, and severity assessment scales. Geriatr Nurs. 2026 Jan 22;69:103846. <a href=\"https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/41576861\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">[Medline]<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12.16px;\">\u00a0<\/span><br \/>\nCreated Nov 16, 2017.<br \/>\nUp-date Mar 2, 2026.<\/p>\n\n<div style=\"font-size: 0px; height: 0px; line-height: 0px; margin: 0; padding: 0; clear: both;\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sorry, this entry is only available in Espa\u00f1ol.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"no","_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[76],"tags":[537,16,15,536,535,14,13,534,538],"class_list":["post-2301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-psychiatry","tag-cam","tag-criteria","tag-criterios","tag-delirio","tag-delirium","tag-diagnostic","tag-diagnostico","tag-dsm","tag-iv"],"modified_by":"Guillermo Firman","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicalcriteria.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicalcriteria.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicalcriteria.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicalcriteria.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicalcriteria.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2301"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/medicalcriteria.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2301\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10681,"href":"https:\/\/medicalcriteria.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2301\/revisions\/10681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicalcriteria.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicalcriteria.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicalcriteria.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}