Clinical PerspectiveThe diagnosis and treatment of delirium in children

Abstract

Delirium is commonly encountered in the setting of paediatric consultation-liaison psychiatry. However, it is commonly misdiagnosed as current operational diagnostic criteria may be difficult to apply in children. We present a practical approach to eliciting the signs and symptoms of delirium in children and a proposed treatment algorithm which elaborates a variety of environmental management strategies and includes explicit thresholds for the use of antipsychotic medications.

Journal of Child and Adolescent Mental Health 2009, 21(2): 157–165