Practice Guidelines for the Treatment of Patients With Delirium

From our regular book review column.

This volume of Practice Guidelines is one in a series of guidelines published by the American Psychiatric Association (APA). Although the Guidelines is not intended as a standard for medical care, it goes a long way toward establishing benchmarks for the diagnosis and treatment of delirium. Although delirium is a complex psychiatric syndrome, the APA Work Group on Delirium has succeeded in providing a readable, comprehensive, and effective tool for use by clinicians who treat delirium in their daily practice. The Guidelines consists of an executive summary and sections on disease definition, epidemiology, and natural history; treatment; formulating a treatment plan; and clinical features that influence treatment. In addition, there is a continuing medical education exercise and a quick reference guide with appropriate decision trees for diagnosis, psychiatric management, environmental interventions, and choice of specific somatic interventions.