Delirium (Acute Confusion): A Family Guide to Sudden Changes in Thinking and Memory Includes advice for people living with dementia

Delirium often arrives without warning. A person may become confused, frightened, agitated, sleepy, or unlike themselves over a few hours or days. Families can find the change bewildering.

This book explains what delirium is, what families might see, how clinical teams assess and treat its causes, ways relatives and carers can help, and what recovery can be like.

Chapter 1 is free. Enter your email address on the book website, deliriumfamilyguide.com, and a link to the PDF will be emailed to you. News of publication will go to the same list.

While the book is in preparation, Delirium Support provides practical information about sudden confusion, getting help, delirium and dementia, supporting someone, and recovery.

Alasdair MacLullich is a hospital doctor and Professor of Geriatric Medicine at the University of Edinburgh. For more than 20 years, he has cared for people with delirium and researched the condition. He created the 4AT, a delirium test used in hospitals worldwide.

Sharmella Summan has worked as a doctor in hospitals and general practice, and now works in a hospice. She has cared for many people with delirium and has experienced delirium herself as a patient. She tells her own story in this book.

For media or publishing enquiries, please use the media and speaking page. For information about delirium, use the delirium overview or go directly to Delirium Support.