Delirium Research Priorities

The Future of Delirium Research

Delirium is serious and distressing condition, but there is limited research on delirium care. We need your help to decide what questions should be answered by research to improve the care we provide for people with delirium.


This project is a partnership between patients, carers, and clinicians, who are working together to identify the questions about delirium that are most important for research to answer. This research is facilitated by James Lind Alliance (JLA). 

Delirium is: 

  • a sudden change to a person’s mental state that can be related to the effects of illness, injury, having surgery, medicines, or withdrawal from drugs or alcohol. 
  • a medical condition, which is often not recognised and needs urgent medical care. 
  • a temporary condition that develops quickly over hours or days but can last a few days or weeks.  
  • different from dementia which occurs more gradually and for a longer time, but both can happen at the same time.   
  • more common in older people and people living with dementia but can affect anyone. 

  

People with delirium can find it hard to:  

  • deal with the symptoms, such as seeing or hearing things that are not there. 
  • trust the people caring for them. 
  • manage emotions.   
  • communicate their needs.   
  • make decisions.   
  • care for themselves. 


Delirium can be frightening. It can lead to slower recovery from illness, and longer hospital stays. 

What matters most to you

In our first survey, we invited patients, carers, and healthcare professionals to tell us what questions about delirium they felt were most important for research to answer. A total of 186 people participated and submitted 513 questions. We carefully reviewed all submissions and combined similar questions into 40 summary questions. Our research team then conducted a comprehensive review of the published evidence to identify which of these questions remain unanswered by current research.


In our second survey, 315 patients, carers, and healthcare professionals helped prioritise these unanswered questions by selecting the 10 they felt were most important to them.

What's next?

We are taking the top 20 unanswered questions about delirium to a final prioritisation workshop in early August, where patients, carers, and healthcare professionals will come together to discuss and agree on the Top 10 Delirium Research Priorities.


Visit us then to discover the final Top 10 research questions that will help shape the future of delirium research.

Who is supporting this study? 

This study has been approved by Metro North Hospital and Health Service and the University of Technology Sydney.  This survey is being carried out in collaboration with the James Lind Alliance, a UK-based, non-profit initiative, which works with partners to facilitate the setting of health research priorities.


This study has been approved by the Metro North Health HREC (EC00172), HREC reference number HREC/2024/MNHA/110598. For more information about your rights as a participant, or should you wish to make an independent complaint, you may contact the Coordinator or Chairperson, Human Research Ethics Committee, Royal Brisbane & Women’s Hospital, Herston, Qld, 4029 or telephone (07) 3646 5280, email: MetroNorthResearch-Ethics@health.qld.gov.au.You may also contact the Metro North Health Research Governance Manager by telephone: 07 36479550 or email: MetroNorthResearch-RGO@health.qld.gov.au

Who can I contact for more information?

If you need more information or if you would like a paper survey, please contact: 


Liliana Botero 

Project Coordinator, 

Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital 

liliana.boterozapata@health.qld.gov.au 


Professor Alison Mudge

Project Lead, 

Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital 

Alison.Mudge@health.qld.gov.au