The effect of dexamethasone on the incidence of delirium in patients hospitalized due COVID-19 infection: a retrospective cohort study

Delirium has been suggested to be a complication associated with corticosteroid use. Therefore, the association between dexamethasone use and delirium in COVID-19 patients was studied herein.

In this single-center retrospective cohort study, 412 patients who were hospitalized because of COVID-19 between March 2020 and January 2021 were included. Delirium was diagnosed using the Delirium Observation Screening Scale. The association between the daily use of dexamethasone 6 mg and delirium was measured via multivariable logistic regression analysis.

The incidence of delirium was 11.4% in patients treated with dexamethasone (n = 245) and 9.6% in patients not treated with dexamethasone (n = 167) (RR 1.19, CI 0.67–2.13, p = 0.55). After adjusting for age (mean 69 years) and comorbidity score, the odds ratio for developing delirium when using dexamethasone was 1.11 (CI 0.56–2.21, p = 0.76).

The use of dexamethasone in hospitalized COVID-19 patients did not affect the incidence of delirium.