THE MISDIAGNOSIS OF DELIRIUM

The authors examined the ability of nonpsychiatric house staff to accu rately diagnose delirium at the time of consultation. Of 222 consultat ions over a 5-year period, 46% were misdiagnosed by the house staff Ho use staff on the general medicine wards and the nonintensive care unit environment did significantly better than those on the surgical wards and intensive care units, Age, gender and race of the patient did not overall influence incorrect diagnoses; however when a misdiagnosis oc curred, women were more often given a diagnosis of a depressive disord er whereas men were more often given a ''no diagnosis'' label. Finally , the consultees improved over an academic year in accurately identify ing women as delirious, whereas no such learning curve existed for men .