ArticleFederal practitioner : for the health care professionals of the VA, DoD, and PHS2021
Risk Factors and Antipsychotic Usage Patterns Associated With Terminal Delirium in a Veteran Long-Term Care Hospice Population.
Article in Federal practitioner : for the health care professionals of the VA, DoD, and PHS, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed, 5 citations in OpenAlex.
- Hospice Clinicians' Approaches to Terminal Restlessness: A Qualitative Analysis.Journal of pain and symptom management · 2026Article
- Serving Vietnam Veterans Hospitalized Outside the VA System: A Scoping Review of Presumptive Service-Related Illnesses and Presentations.Journal of general internal medicine · 2025Article
- Assessing the relationship between the distress levels in patients with irreversible terminal delirium and the good quality of death from the perspective of bereaved family.BMC palliative care · 2025Article
- Pharmacological Treatment for Terminal Agitation, Delirium and Anxiety in Frail Older Patients.Geriatrics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- A Review of Clinical Signs and Symptoms of Imminent End-of-Life in Individuals With Advanced Illness.Gerontology & geriatric medicineReview
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe development of delirium is very common in terminally ill patients. However, risk factors for terminal delirium in the veteran population are poorly identified. The purpose of this study was to (1) Identify risk factors for terminal delirium in a US Department of Veterans Affairs inpatient hospice population; (2) Assess usage patterns of antipsychotics for treatment of terminal delirium; and (3) Describe nursing assessment, nonpharmacologic interventions, and documentation of terminal delirium.
methodsThis was a retrospective case-control study of veterans who expired while admitted into hospice care at a long-term care hospice unit during the period of October 1, 2013 to September 30, 2015. Veterans' medical records were reviewed for the 2 weeks prior to the recorded death.
resultsOf 307 veterans admitted for hospice care, 67.4% required antipsychotics in the last 2 weeks of life for the treatment of terminal delirium. The average number of antipsychotic doses given was 14.9 doses per patient. The risk factors that were identified included the use of steroids, opioids, or anticholinergics; Vietnam-era veterans with liver disease; veterans with cancer and a comorbid mental health disorder; and veterans with a history of drug and/or alcohol abuse.
conclusionsMore than half of veterans admitted for hospice care experienced terminal delirium requiring treatment with antipsychotics. The identification of veterans most likely to develop terminal delirium will allow for early nonpharmacologic interventions and potentially decrease the need for treatment with antipsychotic medications.
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.