Wes Ely to Visit University of Iowa in April

Retirement takes a back seat today for this announcement: Dr. Wes Ely, Critical Care Specialist and one of the foremost experts in intensive care unit (ICU) delirium at Vanderbilt University will be speaking at The Newman Center in Iowa City on April 11, 2019 at 7:00 PM, “Maximizing Dignity at End of Life: Insights from the ICU.” He’ll also deliver the Internal Medicine Grand Rounds at the University of Iowa at noon, “A New Frontier in Critical Care: Saving the Injured Brain.”

I was notified by one of our critical care specialists, Dr. Gregory A. Schmidt, MD, who co-authored the recently published study showing that antipsychotics are not effective treatment for delirium. Wes talks about the study in the video below:

I met Dr. Ely briefly at one of the annual meetings of the American Delirium Society several years ago. He’s enthusiastic, brilliant, and inspiring. He’s published hundreds of articles and book chapters on delirium and taking care of the brain. Along with Dr. Valerie Page (another critical care specialist) he co-authored a book entitled Delirium in Critical Care, originally published in 2011 and I see that there is a 2nd edition available, published in 2015 by Cambridge University Press.

I have a copy of the first edition, which contains a section about the role of the psychiatrist in ICU delirium. It’s very short, which I think is very appropriate. Dr. Alasdair MacLullich, Professor of Geriatric Medicine, Professor of Geriatric Medicine at the University of Edinburgh and past President of the European Delirium Association, wrote the foreword to the 2nd edition and he describes Dr. Ely as “…perhaps the best recognized expert in this field worldwide,” referring to delirium.

Incidentally, about 8 years ago Dr. MacLullich and I corresponded about his research team’s development of the Edinburgh Delirium Test Box (EDTB), an instrument for detecting attentional abnormalities that are a defining feature of delirium. He loaned us the box and I eventually turned it over to a colleague for continuing use of it as part of an ongoing delirium committee project to improve the early detection and prevention of delirium at our hospital. There is now a smartphone application for it.

Regrettably, I probably won’t get to hear Wes give his presentation—because I’m on duty as the general hospital psychiatric consultant and most likely will be trying to help physicians care for delirious patients.

References:

Girard, T. D., et al. (2018). “Haloperidol and Ziprasidone for Treatment of Delirium in Critical Illness.” N Engl J Med 379(26): 2506-2516.
BACKGROUND: There are conflicting data on the effects of antipsychotic medications on delirium in patients in the intensive care unit (ICU). METHODS: In a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, we assigned patients with acute respiratory failure or shock and hypoactive or hyperactive delirium to receive intravenous boluses of haloperidol (maximum dose, 20 mg daily), ziprasidone (maximum dose, 40 mg daily), or placebo. The volume and dose of a trial drug or placebo was halved or doubled at 12-hour intervals on the basis of the presence or absence of delirium, as detected with the use of the Confusion Assessment Method for the ICU, and of side effects of the intervention. The primary end point was the number of days alive without delirium or coma during the 14-day intervention period. Secondary end points included 30-day and 90-day survival, time to freedom from mechanical ventilation, and time to ICU and hospital discharge. Safety end points included extrapyramidal symptoms and excessive sedation. RESULTS: Written informed consent was obtained from 1183 patients or their authorized representatives. Delirium developed in 566 patients (48%), of whom 89% had hypoactive delirium and 11% had hyperactive delirium. Of the 566 patients, 184 were randomly assigned to receive placebo, 192 to receive haloperidol, and 190 to receive ziprasidone. The median duration of exposure to a trial drug or placebo was 4 days (interquartile range, 3 to 7). The median number of days alive without delirium or coma was 8.5 (95% confidence interval [CI], 5.6 to 9.9) in the placebo group, 7.9 (95% CI, 4.4 to 9.6) in the haloperidol group, and 8.7 (95% CI, 5.9 to 10.0) in the ziprasidone group (P=0.26 for overall effect across trial groups). The use of haloperidol or ziprasidone, as compared with placebo, had no significant effect on the primary end point (odds ratios, 0.88 [95% CI, 0.64 to 1.21] and 1.04 [95% CI, 0.73 to 1.48], respectively). There were no significant between-group differences with respect to the secondary end points or the frequency of extrapyramidal symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: The use of haloperidol or ziprasidone, as compared with placebo, in patients with acute respiratory failure or shock and hypoactive or hyperactive delirium in the ICU did not significantly alter the duration of delirium. (Funded by the National Institutes of Health and the VA Geriatric Research Education and Clinical Center; MIND-USA ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT01211522 .).

Tieges, Z., Stíobhairt, A., Scott, K., Suchorab, K., Weir, A., Parks, S., . . . MacLullich, A. (2015). Development of a smartphone application for the objective detection of attentional deficits in delirium. International Psychogeriatrics, 27(8), 1251-1262. doi:10.1017/S1041610215000186