A Secondary Analysis of the Prevalence and Clinical Profile of Psychiatric Referrals of Delirium in a Tertiary Care Hospital in Central India

Introduction: Delirium is a common and serious neuropsychiatric syndrome characterized by acute, fluctuating alterations in consciousness, cognition, and perception. It is associated with increased morbidity, mortality, length of hospital stays, and healthcare costs.

Aim: The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence and clinical profile of psychiatric referrals of delirium in a tertiary-care hospital.

Methods: A secondary analysis was conducted on patients with delirium referred to the CLP Unit, Department of Psychiatry, between June 2022 and June 2023. A comprehensive analysis was done using descriptive statistics to summarize the data, independent t-tests to compare group means, and chi-square tests to examine associations between categorical variables, providing a robust evaluation of the key relationships and patterns.

Results: The key findings indicate that the psychiatric referral rate was about 2.98% from various departments. The prevalence of delirium in our hospital was 13.2% of the total psychiatric referrals and about 0.4% of the total inpatients of the tertiary care hospital during the study duration. The mean age of delirium patients in the geriatric and non-geriatric groups was 71.6 years and 37.9 years, respectively. Most referrals were from the medicine department. Metabolic disorders and substance use were the most common physical and psychiatric comorbidities, respectively. Psychotropic use with supportive intervention was common (60.3%), with antipsychotics being the most commonly used class of psychotropics.

Conclusion: Delirium is a prevalent and clinically diverse syndrome that affects a significant proportion of hospitalized patients. It is a multidimensional disorder impacting a range of populations. Physical and psychiatric comorbidities play an important role in prognosis. While psychotropic use may be helpful symptomatically, it is not associated with better outcomes. Treating the underlying cause remains of paramount importance.