About four out of every ten patients admitted in an ICU (Intensive Care Unit) experience loss of brain activity that is similar to the kind seen in people suffering from brain injury or Alzheimer's disease. Researchers said that symptoms of delirium in patients can last for up to a year.
The study was conducted by researchers at the Vanderbilt's ICU Delirium and Cognitive Impairment Group. Scientists looked at the data from over 800 patients admitted in an ICU and found that at least 74 percent of them had developed delirium while staying at the hospital
Delirium is a state of confusion that occurs after a surgery or an illness. Previous studies found that the condition is common and affects between 15 and 60 percent of all patients in the U.S.
"As medical care is improving, patients are surviving their critical illness more often, but if they are surviving their critical illness with disabling forms of cognitive impairment then that is something that we will have to be aware of because just surviving is no longer good enough," said Pratik Pandharipande, M.D., professor of Anesthesiology and Critical Care and lead author of the study, according to a news release.
In the present study, experts found that around 40 percent of the participants had cognitive scores similar to people suffering from traumatic brain injury. Also, about 26 percent had scores comparable to people with Alzheimer's disease.
They also found that age didn't matter as both young and old people had similar rates of delirium.
"Regardless of why you come in to an ICU, you have to know that, on the back end of your critical care, you are very likely to be suffering cognitively in ways similar to a TBI patient or an AD patient, except that most of the medical profession doesn't even know that this is happening and few around you suspect anything, leaving most to suffer in silence," said Wes Ely, M.D., professor of Medicine and senior author of the study.
The study is published in the New England Journal of Medicine.