COVID-19 Patients With Delirium in Emergency Department May Experience Worse Outcomes

Nearly 30% of adults aged 65 and older who are diagnosed and treated for COVID-19 in U.S. emergency departments (EDs) may present with delirium, suggests areport published today in JAMA Network Open. These patients appear to have worse outcomes, including longer stays in the intensive care unit (ICU) and in-hospital death than those with COVID-19 who do not show signs of delirium.“These findings suggest the clinical importance of including delirium on checklists of presenting signs and symptoms of COVID-19 that guide screening, testing, and evaluation,” wrote Maura Kennedy, M.D., M.P.H., of Massachusetts General Hospital and colleagues.Kennedy and colleagues analyzed data from older adults who were seen in one of seven ED study sites across the United States and diagnosed with COVID-19 on or after March 13 (the date COVID-19 was declared a national emergency in the United States). They specifically focused on outcomes in patients whose medical records noted delirium symptoms at the time of arrival to the ED.A total of 817 patients (mean age 77.7 years) were included in the analysis; 226 patients had delirium at presentation. Common symptoms of delirium noted in the medical record included impaired consciousness (122 patients), disorientation (96 patients), hypoactive delirium symptoms (45 patients), and agitation or hyperactive delirium symptoms (35 patients).Of patients with delirium, 37 had delirium as a primary presenting complaint. Importantly, 84 of these patients ha...
Source: Psychiatr News - Category: Psychiatry Tags: CDC guidelines COVID-19 death delirium ED emergency department ICU length of stays medical records older adults Source Type: research