The Singing Detective is a series from 1986 where Michael Gambon plays a hospital patient with severe psoriasis who clearly is suffering from delirium. If you want to have an understanding of the experience of delirium watch this. The first episode was last night on BBC4, it will be on BBCi catch-up. Also see a link to the youtube clip posted on the EDA facebook page.
Dedicated to Dennis Potter
The New Year started well with the Sunday Post, the Scottish weekly newspaper, featuring a double page article on ICU delirium in the January 1st edition. It included an interview with Peter Gibb of ICUsteps who described his paranoia during critical illness. This is the second mainstream media coverage of ICU delirium in a matter of months - see November news archive!
David Aaronovitch, the columnist, describes his experience of ICU psychosis on the consumer affairs programme You and Yours. Listen to it on BBCi Player, chapter 5 - its terrifying!
The Annals of Delirium, official publication of the European Delirium Association is free to download from the website. With its more informal approach it makes a refreshing change. This edition includes a number of opinion pieces which work towards a change in attitude and in management. Which ones do you agree with?
http://www.europeandeliriumassociation.com/news/annals-of-delirium-volume-6-available-to-download/
An opportunity for a doctor to work on an ongoing ICU delirium clinical trial as a research fellow. This post is for 12 months in the first instance based at Watford General Hospital working with Dr Valerie Page on the Hope-ICU trial. The trial is a double-blind randomised controlled clinical effectiveness trial using haloperidol versus placebo in ventilated patients.
Currently advertised on NHS jobs. Further information from valerie.page@whht.nhs.uk
The next Annals of Delirium (newsletter of the European Delirium Association) would like you to contribute, let us know what you are doing, trying to do, would like to do, what is your experience? Challenge the experts - come on, sound off to Europe about delirium.
Send us a letter for the next edition. Closing date November 8th.
Valerie.page@whht.nhs.uk Editor, Annals of Delirium
This years European Delirium Association Congress is to be held in Umea, Sweden November 17th to 18th. The programme includes Yoanna Skrobik who developed the Intensive Care Delirium Screening Checklist (ICDSC) and Alessandro Morandi who has spent the last 4 years working with Wes Ely. The emphasis is on new developments and research.
It will likely be a more intimate (!) meeting due to the location so this is a golden opportunity. The great and good in delirium research and/or managing clinical delirium will certainly be attending even if they are not presenting and will be happy to spend time in discussion or advising other delegates, promise!
http://www.europeandeliriumassociation.com/silo/files/eda-ume-programme-6-sep-2011.pdf
Delirium in Critical Care, the book written by Dr Valerie Page and Professor Wes Ely, was given the ultimate accolade in a review published in August’s British Journal of Anaesthesia “I couldn’t put it down”. Find out for yourself, back to £19.13 from Amazon, list price £22.50 published by Cambridge University Press.
Buy it today and change your patients lives forever!
The Intensive Care Foundation (Research arm of Intensive Care Society) currently is running a research prioritisation exercise and prevention/treatment of delirium is one of the proposals. So all you ICS members out there have a look at the proposals you have been sent - take part. The delirium based study is Number 6.
Clinicians of the ICS make your vote count!
There will be a study day held on Sept 12th in Cambridge on Delirium and Restraints in ICU. It is only £50 (free to NHS staff and members of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire critical care network). There is an excellent programme of speakers. So if you are finding agitated ICU patients a challenge then you may find the answers here.
For more details and registration: Dr Kim Giraud 01480 364506. kimberly.giraud@papworth.nhs.uk
