Abstract

NINO GARCIA, Jorge Andrés; RESTREPO BERNAL, Diana; CARDENO CASTRO, Carlos  and  OVIEDO LUGO, Gabriel. Assessment of Three Clinical Practice Guidelines for the Management of Delirium Using the AGREE Instrument. rev.colomb.psiquiatr. [online]. 2011, vol.40, n.2, pp.363-376. ISSN 0034-7450.

Introduction: Delirium is the most prevalent neuropsychiatric syndrome in the general hospital. Its presence is associated with increased morbidity, mortality, suffering, and costs of hospital care. Clinical practice guidelines have been developed for the management of delirium with the purpose of assisting medical teams in making the right decisions in specific clinical circumstances. Objective: To analyze three clinical guidelines for delirium using the AGREE Instrument to determine which one has better methodological quality. Method: We assessed three clinical guidelines for the management of delirium. The three chosen guidelines were evaluated by four Colombian liaison psychiatrists who applied the AGREE instrument. Results: After the evaluation we found that the Australian guidelines for the management of delirium reached a high rating with the AGREE Instrument rendering them “highly recommended”. Conclusions: The lack of scientific evidence dealing with this important clinical issue is surprising. The development of research in this important area of liaison psychiatry should be a priority.

Keywords : Delirium; clinical protocols; decision making.

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