FURTHER ANALYSES OF THE DELIRIUM RATING-SCALE

The Delirium Rating Scale is a clinician-rated, 10-item symptom rating scale for assessment of delirium severity. In order to better underst and the relationship between items of the scale and whether they refle ct one or more underlying groupings or dimensions, further analyses of the originally published scale data were performed. Factor analysis r evealed a strong single underlying dimension that could be further div ided into two components: one comprising delusions, psychomotor behavi or, cognition, sleep-wake cycle disturbance, and mood lability; the ot her comprising temporal onset of symptoms, perceptual disturbances, ha llucinations, and fluctuation of symptoms. Implications for improved p henomenological understanding of delirium are discussed.