ReviewEuropean geriatric medicine2025
What's behind delirium: is there a specific role for medications?
Review in European geriatric medicine, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Delirium superimposed on dementia in nursing homes: prevalence, incidence, and prognosis - protocol of a prospective multicenter cohort study.BMC geriatrics · 2026Article
- Association of Postoperative Antidepressant and Anxiolytic Exposure With Overall Survival Following Radical Cystectomy for Bladder Cancer.Psycho-oncology · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
Abstract
purposeDelirium in nursing home (NH) residents is typically multifactorial and complex. This narrative review aims to synthesize the current literature on medications that are identified as predisposing and precipitating factors for delirium in older adults in NHs.
methodsA comprehensive PubMed search was carried out to identify English-language publications up to March 2025. Studies were included if they explored the role of medications in inducing delirium in NH residents aged 65 years and older.
resultsWhile there is substantial evidence linking medications to delirium, the number of studies evaluating their effects in the NH setting is notably limited. Several studies conducted in NHs confirmed the association between anticholinergic drugs and delirium. Antipsychotic medications and benzodiazepines may increase the risk of delirium onset. However, the studies conducted in NHs are insufficient to make definitive recommendations due to the small sample sizes and conflicting results. Other classes of medications have been recognized as potential delirium triggers in other healthcare settings, but existing evidence in NHs is either limited or absent.
conclusionDetermining which medications that trigger delirium is complicated by the presence of numerous confounding factors among NH residents, including cognitive impairment, frailty, multimorbidity, polypharmacy, acute medical conditions, pain, end-of-life care, and organizational factors that can interact and amplify the risk. More research is necessary to establish the role of medications in the etiology of delirium in this population.
Indexed as
Identifiers
40638064What Socratic holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.