Alcoholic and postoperative delirium: a case-control study.

Background: Delirium is an urgent condition in psychiatry and it occurs after long-lasting alcohol abuse, in surgical procedures and other organic mental syndromes with deprivation of interpersonal and social stimulations. The aim was to evaluate of sociodemographical and psychopathological differences in delirium patients with alcoholand surgical genesis, studied in period from January 1(st) 2003 to December 31(st) 2012 in Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H).
Subjects and Methods: Subjects were divided into two groups: alcoholics (N=75) and surgical patients (N=75) and multicentric, prospective study was performed in B&H. The following instruments have been used: list of general data (according to MCD-10 criteria), Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ), Becks test of anxiety (BAI), Hamilton Depressive Rating Scale (HDRS) and Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE). Descriptive and analytical statistical processing of patients has been performed (alpha level: 0.001).
Results: Patients from alcohol group showed, with statistical significance p=0.001, the following: unemployment (OR=0.657, CI 0.540-670), ruined marriage (OR=0.570, CI 0.650-710), alcohol abuse (OR=0.179, CI 0.860-0.990), on represented expressed psychoticism, (OR=0.635, CI 0.550-0.715) in EPQ test, HDRS total was more frequent (OR=0.925, CI 0.870-1.120) and on MMSE test, total score was more frequent (OR=0.560, CI 0.570-810). Postoperative patients were older p=0.001 (OR=1.120, CI 1.082-1.159) with acutestress: (OR=0.735, CI 0.650-0.910) and showed neuroticism (OR=-0.660, CI 0.575-0.715). Discriminative function confirms the differences between alcohol and surgical groups of delirium patients: Canonical Fcn: r=0.771; Wilkin's lambda (λnj)=0.773 Student's test=57.551 and significance p=0.001; OR=0.760, CI 0.550-0.870.
Conclusion: Delirium lasts longer in alcohol group with higher disalienation, depression of cognitive functions with organic lesions of cerebral functions. In surgical patients, delirium is the consequence of older age, acute stress, multi-morbidity, with neuroticism, vegetative disorders (HDRS) and temporary lesion on MMSE test. Delirium state in both groups requires intensive care and multidisciplinary work.