DELIRIUM, THEORY AND CLINICAL PRACTICE: A scoping review of causes, mechanisms and obstacles in management

This scoping review aims to investigate the available evidence on the risk factors associated with delirium, as well as the main challenges faced in its identification, management, and prevention in hospitalized patients. The guiding question of this study was structured according to the PCC mnemonic: Population: hospitalized adults; Concept of interest: predisposing and precipitating risk factors, pathophysiological mechanisms, barriers to diagnosis, prevention and management of delirium, and the use of artificial intelligence; Context: hospital environment, including intensive care units. Based on this structure, the research question developed was: “What are the factors associated with the development of delirium and the main challenges faced in its diagnosis, prevention, and management in hospitalized patients?” Six specific questions were also developed to guide the extraction and analysis of data. The literature search will be carried out on the PubMed electronic platform. The studies resulting from the searches will be exported to the Rayyan software and selected in two phases based on previously established criteria. Stage I will consist of screening the articles based on their title and abstract, and Stage II will be carried out by reading the articles selected in Stage I in full. A qualitative synthesis will be provided based on the data selected in the studies. The extracted data will also be summarized in a descriptive table, containing concise answers to all the specific questions.