Clinical interventions in aging
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Randomized Controlled Trial
A new delirium phenotype with rapid high amplitude onset and nearly as rapid reversal: Central Coast Australia Delirium Intervention Study.
Traditional models for delirium based on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders and its 1990 offspring, the Confusion Assessment Method (CAM), were not designed to distinguish behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia from rapid cognitive decline. We examined a new diagnostic criterion for delirium plus exclusion of behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia and recent inattention with a 25% decline in digit span forward (DSF). ⋯ This delirium phenotype selects for a rapid high amplitude critical decline in attention, executive function, IADL, and apathy that recovers almost as rapidly.