How is delirium treated?

Treat cause: Delireum can be caused by alot of things. Infection, medication, anesthesia? It's a pretty long list. You have to treat the underlying cause.

Search for cause: First, search for and treat the underlying cause, reorient the person frequently, reassure and educate families, keep the person hydrated, get the person out of bed if possible, avoid medications known to make things worse. Antipsychotic medications have been shown to treat and prevent delirium.

Depends : Delirium due to alcohol or drug withdrawal is treated differently than delirium (acute brain failure). If due to "acute brain failure", we look for modifiable precipitants to address while also understanding the innate vulnerabilities to delirium that a person may have. Specialists with board-certification in psychosomatic medicine, as well as the ICU doctors at vanderbilt are resources.