DELIRIUM IN CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS

Objective: To study the clinical profile of children and adolescents (<= 14 years) referred to the Consultation-Liaison (CL) psychiatry services of a Tertiary Care Centre. Design: Retrospective chart review. Setting: Patients seen by the CL psychiatry services of Department of Psychiatry, Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh. Participants: Subjects diagnosed as delirium (as per ICD-10) during their inpatient stay was done. Main outcome measures: phenomenology of delirium and response to treatment. Result: Forty-six children and adolescents were diagnosed as delirium by the psychiatry consultation-liaison team. The most common underlying pathology was infection of various types, followed by neoplasms. All subjects exhibited sleep-wake cycle disturbance and impaired orientation. Other common symptoms were impaired attention (89.5%), impaired short-term memory (84.2%), agitation (68.4%), and lability of affect (60.5%). Delusions and hallucinations were reported by only a few patients. Most of the patients were treated with low dose haloperidol and they responded well. Conclusion: Sleep wake cycle disturbances and cognitive dysfunction are common in children and adolescents with delirium. (Int'l. J Psychiatry in Medicine 2009;39:179-187)