Dazed and Confused: Clearing the Haze for the Recognition and Treatment of Hyperactive Delirium with Severe Agitation

NOTE: This session is part of the Live Intensive Studies and Clinical Sessions packages. All attendees may attend these thought-provoking and highly educational sessions. However, if you are board certified, you must purchase the package(s) for your specialty to receive the recertification assessment and claim the recertification credit.

This program will address the role of pharmacists in recognition and selection of agents to manage hyperactive delirium syndrome based on patient specific factors. The faculty will present patient cases of hyperactive delirium with severe agitation. A poll about how to manage these cases followed by a discussion of the pros and cons of each plan will be provided. These real-world, common examples will help attendees effectively recognize patients presenting with hyperactive delirium with severe agitation and increase timely interventions to effectively manage this patient population.
Specific patient characteristics and presentations and when best to initiate specific agents will be discussed. These cases will include medication-induced delirium, substance-induced delirium, and age-related delirium. In addition, patient safety and monitoring of these treatment agents, such as droperidol and ketamine, will be reviewed. The faculty will discuss several ways to develop a multidisciplinary service to optimize treatment in the acute care setting to reduce morbidity, mortality, and hospital length of stay. Finally, the faculty will describe successful implementation of a rapid de-escalation program utilizing order sets and/or protocols to provide rapid assessment, initiation of appropriate agents, effective monitoring as well as effective methods for transition of care whether it be inpatient or outpatient.

This activity is approved for Board Certified Critical Care Pharmacist (BCCCP) and Board Certified Pharmacotherapy Specialist (BCPS) recertification credit.