• Yuko Kanbayashi, Yutaka Hatano, Yuzuru Hata, Tatsuya Morita, Kenji Fukui, and Toyoshi Hosokawa.
• 1 Hospital Pharmacy, Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine , Kyoto, Japan .
• J Palliat Med. 2013 Sep 1;16(9):1020-5.

BackgroundDespite the fact that many cancer patients worldwide die in general hospitals, there are few reports of the analysis of delirium in terminally ill cancer patients in this setting.PurposeThis study aimed to identify predictive factors for agitation severity of hyperactive delirium in terminally ill cancer patients in a general hospital.MethodsParticipants were 182 consecutively admitted terminally ill cancer patients who died in a Japanese general hospital between April 2009 and March 2011. Variables present one week before death were extracted from the clinical records for regression analysis of factors potentially related to agitation severity of delirium. The prevalence and agitation severity of delirium were evaluated retrospectively. Multivariate ordered logistic regression analysis was performed to identify predictive factors.ResultsMale sex [odds ratio (OR)=2.125, 95% confidence interval (CI)=1.111-4.067; P=0.0227]; total bilirubin (T-bil) [OR=1.557, CI=1.082-2.239; P=0.017]; antibiotics [OR=0.450, CI=0.219-0.925; P=0.0298]; nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) [OR=2.608, CI=1.374-4.950; P=0.0034]; and hematological malignancy [OR=3.903, CI=1.363-11.179; P=0.0112] were found to be statistically significant predictors for agitation severity of hyperactive delirium.ConclusionsOur study indicates that male sex, T-bil, antibiotic therapy, NSAID therapy, and hematological malignancy are significant predictors for agitation severity of hyperactive delirium in terminally ill cancer patients in a general hospital setting.

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