An editorial featured in Age and Ageing explains how delirium is a missing piece in the COVID-19 pandemic puzzle. “The current assessment for COVID-19  does not routinely include delirium or mental status changes in older adults. While guidance on suspected COVID-19 cases from the World Health Organisation (WHO) cautions about ‘atypical symptoms’ in older people, and cites possible ‘altered mental status’ it does not explicitly mention delirium.”

The editorial presents four key points:

• Older people are most vulnerable to severe COVID-19 infections and mortality
• Current guidance for diagnosis does not routinely include delirium, which may lead to under-detection of COVID-19
• The care home population is particularly at risk, as failure to promptly detect COVID-19 may lead to outbreaks
• Non-pharmacological approaches to management of delirium may be more difficult to implement but remain the priority

The full free editorial can be found here