Medications, Delirium, and Older Adults

Older adults are at risk for delirium when admitted to the hospital because of predisposing risk factors such as advanced age, history of alcohol and/or tobacco use, and other physical and psychological comorbidities. These risk factors are not modifiable. Additional contributing factors are the effects of critical illness such as sepsis, hypoxia, or dehydration; the unintended consequences of our treatments such as unrelieved pain or too much pain medication, restraints or administration of benzodiazepines; and then the effects of the environment and sleep deprivation. Many of these contributing factors can be mitigated by understanding the effects on the older adult patient.¹