- 473studies in the library match, of 29,780
- 292name it in the title
- 1982–2026years published
- 469peer-reviewed articles
The query: title or abstract mentions "delirium" or "acute confusion", matched case-insensitively against each record's title and abstract (its summary field) in alzhub's library of 29,780 study records, as of 2026-11-09. Every count on this page comes from that match. The matched list as JSON.
Delirium comes on over hours or days, fluctuates, and is triggered by illness, surgery, medicines or dehydration. Dementia is the strongest risk factor for it, and an episode of delirium is in turn associated with a higher chance of dementia being diagnosed later and with faster decline in people who already have it. Whether delirium causes lasting damage or reveals a brain that was already vulnerable is the central question in this research.
Because delirium is often preventable with simple measures in hospital, the prevention trials are of practical importance to families and hospitals alike.
This page describes what published research in alzhub's library reports. It is not medical advice and does not apply to any one person: a doctor who knows the person's history is the only one who can say what a result or a treatment means for them.
What the studies report, in their own words
Whole sentences copied from the abstract or key findings of the highest-scoring matched studies, chosen because they mention the subject and give a figure. 8 of the 473 matched records are quoted; each links to its study page and from there to the paper.
“Background delirium affects up to 40% of older hospitalised patients, but there has been no systematic review focussing on risk factors for incident delirium in older medical inpatients.”
“Post-operative delirium was apparent in 18% of CABG patients which increased to 24% when a diagnostic instrument was utilized alongside clinical criteria.”
“There is moderate-certainty evidence regarding the benefit of multicomponent non-pharmacological interventions for the prevention of delirium in hospitalised adults, estimated to reduce incidence by 43% compared to usual care.”
“Multicomponent interventions significantly reduced incident delirium (relative risk [RR] 0.73, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.63-0.85, P<0.001) and accidental falls during the hospitalisation (RR 0.39, 95% CI 0.21, 0.72, P=0.003), without evidence of differential effectiveness according to ward type or dementia rates.”
“Seven studies were conducted in general medical or geriatric medicine settings.We found multi-component interventions reduced the incidence of delirium compared to usual care (RR 0.69, 95% CI 0.59 to 0.81; seven studies; 1950 participants; moderate-quality evidence).”
“Melatonin was associated with a lower risk of delirium (12.0% vs.”
“We performed a systematic review of the associations, in older people, between retinal layer thickness changes (measured using OCT) and delirium or MCI compared to controls (Protocol registration ID (Prospero) CRD42019122165).”
“Results Of 1583 articles, data subjected from the 24 studies (including 3562 patients who experienced delirium and 6987 controls who did not) were included in a random-effects meta-analysis for pooled effect estimates and random-effects meta-regressions to identify sources of study variance.”
What kind of evidence it is
By study design
| Design (as recorded) | Studies |
|---|---|
| Systematic review or meta-analysis | 37 |
| Randomised controlled trial | 13 |
| Other clinical trial | 4 |
| Cohort or longitudinal study | 95 |
| Case-control study | 10 |
| Cross-sectional study | 14 |
| Other recorded design | 7 |
| No design recorded | 293 |
The design is the one named in alzhub's record for the study; a record with none is counted as "no design recorded".
By year
| Year | Studies | Share |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 44 | |
| 2025 | 99 | |
| 2024 | 5 | |
| 2023 | 6 | |
| 2022 | 9 | |
| 2021 | 22 | |
| 2020 | 20 | |
| 2019 | 9 | |
| 2018 | 20 | |
| 2017 | 16 | |
| 2016 and earlier | 223 |
Other counts within the matched set
| Peer-reviewed articles | 469 |
| Marked open access in the record | 185 |
| Rated "high" evidence strength in alzhub's summary | 73 |
| Rated "moderate" evidence strength in alzhub's summary | 121 |
| Rated "low" evidence strength in alzhub's summary | 278 |
| No evidence-strength rating | 1 |
| Records stating a participant count | 247 |
| Median participants (those records) | 284 |
| Largest participant count | 1,686,759 |
Within the 473 matched studies
| Studies… | Count | Rule |
|---|---|---|
| …about surgery or postoperative delirium | 128 | the abstract also contains "postoperative", "surgery", "surgical" or "anaesthesia" |
| …that mention prevention | 87 | the abstract also contains "prevent" |
| …that report a hazard ratio or odds ratio | 306 | the abstract also contains "hazard ratio", "odds ratio", "HR" or "OR" |
The 10 highest-scoring matched studies
Title matches first, then by alzhub's usefulness score, which rates a study's design, journal, evidence and recency, not whether its result is good news.
- Processed electroencephalogram and evoked potential techniques for amelioration of postoperative delirium and cognitive dysfunction following non-cardiac and non-neurosurgical procedures in adults
- Delirium in elderly patients and the risk of postdischarge mortality, institutionalization, and dementia: a meta-analysis
- Risk factors for incident delirium among older people in acute hospital medical units: a systematic review and meta-analysis
- Non-pharmacological interventions for preventing delirium in hospitalised non-ICU patients
- A Focused Update to the Clinical Practice Guidelines for the Prevention and Management of Pain, Anxiety, Agitation/Sedation, Delirium, Immobility, and Sleep Disruption in Adult Patients in the ICU
- Preventing delirium: should non-pharmacological, multicomponent interventions be used? A systematic review and meta-analysis of the literature
- Persistent delirium in older hospital patients: a systematic review of frequency and prognosis
- The risk factors for postoperative delirium in adult patients after hip fracture surgery: a systematic review and meta-analysis
- Prevalence, Risk Factors, and Impact of Delirium on Hospitalized Older Adults With Dementia: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
- Interventions for preventing delirium in hospitalised non-ICU patients
Systematic reviews and meta-analyses in the set
37 of the matched records are recorded as a systematic review, meta-analysis or umbrella review; the highest-scoring not already listed above:
- Risk factors for mortality in elderly patients with hip fractures: a meta-analysis of 18 studies
- Cognitive outcomes following coronary artery bypass grafting: A systematic review and meta-analysis of 91,829 patients
- Mental and neurological disorders and risk of COVID-19 susceptibility, illness severity and mortality: A systematic review, meta-analysis and call for action
- Prevalence of Oropharyngeal Dysphagia and Risk of Pneumonia, Malnutrition, and Mortality in Adults Aged 60 Years and Older: A Meta-Analysis
- Optical coherence tomography in mild cognitive impairment - Systematic review and meta-analysis
Newest matched studies
- Plasma Neurofilament Light Chain is Markedly Elevated in General Hospital Inpatients with Delirium
- Knowledge predicts attitudes toward dementia among hospital nurses in Saudi Arabia: a cross-sectional study
- Neuropsychiatric Adverse-Event Reporting With Brexpiprazole Across Approved Indications: A Disproportionality Analysis Using the FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS)
- Secondary causes among adult patients presenting with first-episode psychosis to acute medical settings in Hong Kong: A 10-Year retrospective study
- Palmitoylethanolamide and Luteolin in Brain Aging and Cognitive Decline: Biological Rationale and Current Evidence
Journals with the most matched studies
| Journal | Studies |
|---|---|
| Journal of the American Geriatrics Society | 31 |
| Age and Ageing | 14 |
| Age and ageing | 11 |
| International journal of geriatric psychiatry | 10 |
| The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences | 8 |
Questions
- How is delirium different from dementia?
- Delirium starts suddenly, fluctuates through the day and usually has a trigger such as infection, surgery or a new medicine; dementia develops over months and years. A person with dementia who becomes suddenly more confused should be assessed for delirium, which is often treatable.
- How many studies on delirium and dementia does alzhub hold?
- 473 of the 29,780 study records in alzhub's library match the query "title or abstract mentions "delirium" or "acute confusion""; 292 of them name it in the title. Counted from the records when this page was built.
- What kinds of study are they?
- 37 systematic review or meta-analysis, 13 randomised controlled trials, 4 other clinical trials, 95 cohort or longitudinal studys, 10 case-control studys, 14 cross-sectional studys; 293 record no design.
- What is the most recent study in the set?
- "Plasma Neurofilament Light Chain is Markedly Elevated in General Hospital Inpatients with Delirium" (medRxiv, 2026), the newest by publication date among the matched records.
- Which journals publish most on it?
- Journal of the American Geriatrics Society (31); Age and Ageing (14); Age and ageing (11), counted across the matched records.
Read on
- Day-to-day careRecognising and responding to sudden changes.
- Safety at homeFalls, infections and other triggers.
- Agitation in dementiaBehaviour that delirium can be mistaken for.