Basic Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2020. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Psychiatr. Apr 19, 2020; 10(4): 46-58
Published online Apr 19, 2020. doi: 10.5498/wjp.v10.i4.46
Comparison of novel tools with traditional cognitive tests in detecting delirium in elderly medical patients
David J Meagher, Henry O’Connell, Maeve Leonard, Olugbenga Williams, Fahad Awan, Chris Exton, Michael Tenorio, Margaret O’Connor, Colum P Dunne, Walter Cullen, John McFarland, Dimitrios Adamis
David J Meagher, Henry O’Connell, Maeve Leonard, Olugbenga Williams, Fahad Awan, Margaret O’Connor, Colum P Dunne, Walter Cullen, John McFarland, Dimitrios Adamis, Cognitive Impairment Research Group, Graduate Entry Medical School, University of Limerick, Limerick V94 YVHO, Ireland
Chris Exton, Michael Tenorio, Department of Computer Sciences, University of Limerick, Limerick V94 YVHO, Ireland
Walter Cullen, School of Medicine, University College Dublin, Dublin 4 D04 V1W8, Ireland
Dimitrios Adamis, Sligo Mental Health Services, Ballytivan, Sligo F91 CD34, Ireland
Author contributions: Meagher DJ, O’Connell H, Leonard M, Williams O, Awan F, Exton C, Tenorio M, O’Connor M, Dunne CP, Cullen W, McFarland J and Adamis D contributed to the writing and revising of the manuscript; all authors approved the final version of the manuscript.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by University Hospital Limerick Regional Ethics Committee approved (REC 100/12).
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare other than that they are members of the Cognitive Impairment Research Group (CIRG) that developed the Lighthouse and LSD tests described in this study.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: David J Meagher, MD, PhD, Chairman, Professor, Head, Department of Psychiatry, Graduate Entry Medical School, University of Limerick, Limerick V94 YVHO, Ireland. david.meagher@ul.ie
Received: October 2, 2019
Peer-review started: October 2, 2019
First decision: November 6, 2019
Revised: January 17, 2020
Accepted: March 4, 2020
Article in press: March 4, 2020
Published online: April 19, 2020
Core Tip

Core tip: This study examines the accuracy of a range of conventional and novel bedside cognitive tests in identifying delirium amongst older medical patients within a general hospital setting. The novel tests (Letter and Shape Drawing test, and Lighthouse test) compare favourably with conventional tests and may be particularly useful by virtue of their capacity to provide highly consistent testing in real world practice.