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Semin Neurol 2024; 44(06): 707-719
DOI: 10.1055/s-0044-1791227
Review Article

Altered Mental Status and Delirium in Pediatric Patients

Ewa D. Bieber
1   Pritzker Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health, Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
2   Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, Illinois
,
Heidi A.B. Smith
3   Division of Pediatric Cardiac Anesthesia, Department of Anesthesiology, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee
4   Department of Pediatrics, Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt, Nashville, Tennessee
,
D. Catherine Fuchs
5   Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Pediatrics, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee
,
Maalobeeka Gangopadhyay
6   Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital, New York, New York
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Abstract

Mental status is the collection of an individual's consciousness, perception, emotion, memory, and cognition at a particular point in time, which is inferred by the clinician through careful observation and interaction. The pediatric mental status assessment must be approached with an understanding of cognitive, language, and psychosocial development. Alterations must then be comprehensively and clearly described. Delirium is a phenotypic diagnosis with a specific set of criteria in the DSM and is a serious neurocognitive disorder caused by physiologic changes due to illness, injury, toxins, medications, and/or substances. Recognition of delirium in children is improved by monitoring of predisposing risks and precipitating factors, as well as the regular use of validated pediatric screening tools. Management of delirium is focused on treatment of the underlying etiology, prevention of iatrogenic deliriogenic factors, and patient safety.

Keywords

pediatric - mental status assessment - delirium - acute encephalopathy


Publication History

Article published online:
30 September 2024

© 2024. Thieme. All rights reserved.

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