Health Topic

Delirium

Delirium is a mental state in which you are confused, disoriented, and not able to think or remember clearly. It is often temporary and treatable.

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Important: This page is general information, not medical advice. It does not recommend or prescribe any treatment. Always consult your doctor or pharmacist before starting, stopping or changing any medicine.

About Delirium

Delirium is a mental state in which you are confused, disoriented, and not able to think or remember clearly. It usually starts suddenly. It is often temporary and treatable.

There are three types of delirium:

  • Hypoactive, when you are not active and seem sleepy, tired, or depressed
  • Hyperactive, when you are restless or agitated
  • Mixed, when you change back and forth between being hypoactive and hyperactive

There are many different problems that can cause delirium. Some of the more common causes include:

  • Advanced cancer.
  • Alcohol or drugs, either from intoxication or withdrawal. This includes a serious type of alcohol withdrawal syndrome called delirium tremens. It usually happens to people who stop drinking after years of alcohol use disorder (AUD).
  • Dehydration and electrolyte imbalances.
  • Dementia.
  • Hospitalization, especially in intensive care.
  • Infections, such as urinary tract infections, pneumonia, and the flu.
  • Medicines. This could be a side effect of a medicine, such as sedatives or opioids. Or it could be from withdrawal after stopping a medicine.
  • Metabolic disorders.
  • Organ failure, such as kidney or liver failure.
  • Poisoning.
  • Serious illnesses.
  • Severe pain.
  • Sleep deprivation.
  • Surgeries, including reactions to anesthesia.

Certain factors put you at risk for delirium, including:

  • Being in a hospital or nursing home
  • Having dementia
  • Having a serious illness or more than one illness
  • Having an infection
  • Older age
  • Having surgery
  • Taking medicines that affect the mind or behavior
  • Taking high doses of pain medicines, such as opioids

The symptoms of delirium usually start suddenly, over a few hours or a few days. They often come and go. The most common symptoms include:

  • Changes in alertness (usually more alert in the morning, less at night)
  • Changing levels of consciousness
  • Confusion
  • Disorganized thinking, talking in a way that doesn't make sense
  • Disrupted sleep patterns, sleepiness
  • Emotional changes: anger, agitation, depression, irritability, overexcitement
  • Hallucinations and delusions
  • Memory problems, especially with short-term memory
  • Trouble concentrating

Your health care provider may use many tools to make a diagnosis:

  • A medical history, which includes asking about your symptoms
  • Physical and neurological exams
  • Mental status testing, which checks for problems with your thinking and alertness
  • Lab and diagnostic imaging tests

Delirium and dementia have similar symptoms, so it can be hard to tell them apart. You can also have both at the same time. The differences between them are that:

  • Delirium starts suddenly and can cause hallucinations. It is mainly a problem with attention and staying alert. The symptoms may get better or worse and can last for hours or weeks.
  • Dementia develops slowly and does not cause hallucinations. It usually starts with memory loss. The symptoms don't change often, like they can with delirium. Dementia almost never gets better.

Treatment of delirium focuses on the causes and symptoms of delirium. The first step is to identify the cause. Often, treating the cause will lead to a full recovery. The recovery may take some time - weeks or sometimes even months. In the meantime, there may be treatments to manage the symptoms, such as:

  • Controlling the environment, which includes making sure that the room is quiet and well-lit, having clocks or calendars in view, and having family members around
  • Medicines, including those that control aggression or agitation and pain relievers if there is pain
  • If needed, making sure that the person has a hearing aid, glasses, or other devices for communication

Treating the conditions that can cause delirium may reduce the risk of getting it. Hospitals can help lower the risk of delirium by avoiding sedatives and making sure that hospital rooms are kept quiet, calm, and well-lit. It can also help to have family members around and to have the same staff members treat the person each day (if possible).

It sits within Mental Health and Behavior and Brain and Nerves.

When to speak to someone. Reading about a topic cannot tell you whether it applies to you. Speak to a doctor or pharmacist if symptoms are severe, sudden, getting worse, or simply not going away — and seek emergency care immediately for chest pain, breathing difficulty, sudden weakness or confusion, or a serious allergic reaction.

Research on Delirium

1,646 studies areregistered for this condition on ClinicalTrials.gov, the U.S. National Library of Medicine's public registry. A selection is below — the links go straight to the registry entry, not to a summary of ours.

What a registered study does and does not mean. Registration means a study exists and has been declared publicly. It says nothing about whether the treatment being tested works, is safe, or is available to you. Many studies find no benefit — that is what research is for. Never seek out an experimental treatment on the strength of a registry entry alone.

Research currently under way

Research already completed

Study data from ClinicalTrials.gov, a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine. Retrieved 2026-07-30. Registry entries are supplied by study sponsors and investigators; ClinicalTrials.gov does not verify their scientific validity. PocketsInfo is not affiliated with, and not endorsed by, the NLM or the NIH.

Where to read more

Rather than paraphrase, we point you to the primary sources. Every link below is to a government health agency, a national institute or a recognised medical body — grouped by what you are trying to find out.

Learn More

Clinical Trials

Medical subject headings

Clinicians and researchers index this subject under Delirium. These are the terms to use when searching medical literature.

This page is built from the MedlinePlus health topic record for Delirium, a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM), National Institutes of Health. Information is from MedlinePlus.gov. PocketsInfo is not affiliated with, and is not endorsed by, the NLM or the NIH. Retrieved 30 July 2026.