Reconceptualizing Delirium as a Disorder of Complex System Failure

Delirium is conceptually elusive and falls outside of conventional biomedical models. Positivist theoretical paradigms of single linear causality are therefore insufficient to provide mechanistic enlightenment. Delirium does, however, share parallels with features of failure within a complex system. Lessons from complex system theory provide important potential healthcare dividends with respect to delirium. The brain is complex and exhibits emergence, a feature of consciousness, which is crucially impacted in delirium.

Source: Medical Hypotheses - July 2, 2018 Category: Biomedical Science Authors: E. Eeles, A. Teodorczuk, E. Miteleton-Kelly Source Type: research