An observational study reported shorter delirium duration in one medication category than another. Treatment selection and measurement limitations prevent interpreting the difference as a randomized treatment effect.
The study followed 140 patients identified as delirious in a surgical ICU. Researchers recorded physiology, laboratory results, delirium subtype, and medication over the course of illness.
Mean delirium duration differed across treatment categories, with a shorter reported duration in the benzodiazepine group than in the antipsychotic group. Hyperactive presentations and several clinical variables also related to duration.
Clinicians chose treatments rather than randomizing them. Patients with more severe or persistent agitation may have been more likely to receive particular medicines or combinations. That can create an association even without a superior drug effect.
The authors noted absence of a blinded control group, no advance sample-size calculation, and limitations of the available assessment instruments. Associations and some reported physiologic directions also require close attention to definitions.
The paper does not establish benzodiazepines as generally superior delirium treatment or show that antipsychotics caused longer episodes. It supports examining illness, subtype, prescribing decisions, and observed duration together. An individual opinion should reconstruct when treatment started relative to delirium and why it was selected.
Original analysis of the supplied journal article, identified as PMC5036558.