Takeaway
- This study suggests an association between prehospitalisation medications and poststroke delirium in stroke patients.
Why this matters
- Delirium after stroke is very easy to overlook as there are only few guidelines regarding the prevention or treatment of delirium in stroke care units.
Study design
- Retrospective review of 269 patients (delirium, n=97; non-delirium, n=172) hospitalised in the stroke care unit from September 2011 to September 2012.
- Delirium was assessed using the Intensive Care Delirium Screening Checklist.
- Funding: None disclosed.
Key results
- Overall, onset of delirium was seen in 97 (36%) patients.
- Onset of delirium was found to be significantly associated with increasing age (P=.0004), cerebral haemorrhage (P=.0021), cerebral infarction (P<.0001), dementia (P=.0003), craniotomy (P=.0003), gastric tube (P<.0001), ventricular drain (P<.0001) and ureter tube (P<.0001).
- Common pre-hospitalisation medications causing delirium were antipeptic ulcer agents (P=.0144), purgatives (P=.0288) and anti-anxiety agents and sleep aids (P=.0077).
- Anti-anxiety agents and sleep aids were found to be an independent risk factor for delirium (OR, 3.17; 95% CI, 1.16-8.82; P=.0243).
Limitations
- Single-centre study.
- Risk for bias.
References
References
