IN THIS ISSUE: ACLP President | Emergency Medicine | Delirium Webinar | Dlin/Fischer | What’s New on the Web | CLP2024 | A&E Abstracts
APA guidelines, key research findings, and more
December’s ACLP webinar will highlight key findings from delirium research over the past academic year.
12:30 – 1:00 PM EDT, Wednesday, December 11
Registration is required.
Presenter is Mark Oldham, MD, FACLP, co-chair of the Academy’s Proactive Psychiatry SIG, also current president of the American Delirium Society.
In the December 11 webinar, Dr. Oldham will review three of the highest-rated studies from the American Delirium Society’s latest year-in-review, as scored by the society’s research committee:
Social Determinants of Health and Incident Postoperative Delirium.
The first two are the one-year outcomes from large trials of haloperidol and ziprasidone for ICU delirium. The third explores social determinants of mental health as predictors of delirium after major surgery.
Meanwhile, the American Psychiatric Association is preparing to publish its updated Clinical Practice Guidelines on the prevention and treatment of delirium—anticipated by early 2025.
Among topics to be covered are methodology; specific guideline statements together with evidence; and a discussion regarding the clinical implementation of each statement.
Updated delirium guidelines from a psychiatric perspective have long been lacking, says Dr. Oldham. The previous APA delirium guideline was published in 1999 and updated in 2010.
In a preliminary version of the guidelines APA posted for comment, APA says: “Delirium exacts a significant economic toll on individuals, their families, and society due to factors such as lengthy hospital stays, ICU admissions, rehospitalizations, and lost wages from work absenteeism.” And it points out that, in the US, direct health care costs of hospitalized older adults with delirium are significantly higher than in non-delirious hospitalized patients.
‘Advocacy a marathon, not a sprint’
Federal agency The US Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has turned down advocacy from 12 organisations, including ACLP, representing an estimated 140,000 health care professionals, that had aimed to reclassify delirium as a major complication or comorbidity.
One of the leading campaigners, Dr. Oldham says: “Despite this disappointing outcome, I’m encouraged at how this initiative has brought together such a supportive and diverse range of organizations invested in advancing clinical care for our patients by recognizing the dire and broad-reaching impact of delirium. I am immensely grateful to ACLP for supporting this cause.”
This initiative was only the ’tip of spear’ in advocating for delirium awareness, he asserted. “This is what progress looks like. Advocacy is a marathon, not a sprint.”