The role of thirst in the development of delirium in patients admitted to intensive care unit

 This review study aimed to investigate the role of thirst in the development of delirium in patients admitted to intensive care units.

 Delirium is a common clinical syndrome in patients admitted to intensive care units, affecting approximately one-third of these patients. Delirium is a multidimensional phenomenon. One of the most important and controversial factors in the occurrence of delirium is the phenomenon of thirst.

 This study was conducted by searching out Persian and English databases of Magiran, SID, Web of Science, Science Direct, PubMed, Scopus, without publication year consideration and using the keywords "thirst", "dehydration", "hyperosmolarity" and "delirium". Of 55 articles retrieved, 17 articles were reviewed by the research team among, and finally, after complying with the inclusion criteria and evaluating the quality of articles, 6 articles were included in the study.

 The findings of the present study showed that tolerating the thirst for more than 24 hours is a risk factor for delirium. The role of fluid deficiency in the pathogenesis of delirium is not fully understood, but factors such as tissue hypoperfusion (especially in the brain and kidneys), increased concentrations of drugs or their metabolites in reduced intravascular volumes, and decreased renal function in excretion and/or drug metabolism are possible causes for development of delirium.

There is a lack of studies in this area and due to the importance of delirium and thirst in patients in the intensive care units or the elderly patients, more studies should be conducted in this area. All these factors calls for more attention and studies in this area