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Open research questions in Intensive Care Unit Cognitive Disorders

710 gap statements mined from Intensive Care Unit Cognitive Disorders papers in our 7.9M-paper local library, which holds 3,203 papers on the topic — drawn mostly from each paper's own stated research gap, future-work, challenge and limitation notes, and its abstract. The ones listed below are a selection still marked open; each names the study that raised it, with a DOI link where the paper has one.

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What the literature leaves open

  • The gap in the current literature is the limited evidence regarding the association between occupational therapy and quality of life in ICU patients. The study aims to fill this gap by examining the association between acute-phase occupational therapy and quality of life.

    Association Between Acute-Phase Occupational Therapy and Quality of Life at Hospital Discharge and 90 Days After Discharge · 2026 · DOI

  • Limited understanding of the factors associated with postoperative cognitive performance in older adults. Need for a comprehensive framework to examine the demographic, behavioral, clinical, and social factors associated with cognitive performance. Lack of studies using latent profile analysis to examine cognitive performance in older adults after elective surgery.

    Latent profiles of day-7 cognitive performance and associated ecological factors in older adults after elective surgery: an observational study · 2026 · DOI

  • Prospective studies with standardized POD screening are warranted to validate these findings.

    Association between rewarming rate during cardiopulmonary bypass and postoperative delirium in patients receiving olanzapine after cardiac surgery: A retrospective cohort study · 2026 · DOI

  • The relationship between rewarming rate during cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) and postoperative delirium (POD) in cardiac surgery remains unclear.

    Association between rewarming rate during cardiopulmonary bypass and postoperative delirium in patients receiving olanzapine after cardiac surgery: A retrospective cohort study · 2026 · DOI

  • Future research should focus on optimizing implementation strategies, addressing special populations, and integrating screening into effective prevention and management pathways to improve patient-centered outcomes.

    Delirium screening tools in the pediatric ICU: a useful tool · 2026 · DOI

  • Given limited diagnostic precision and lack of effective therapies, clinical and research efforts should prioritize universal prevention strategies that target modifiable drivers of acute brain dysfunction, rather than widespread screening for a poorly defined and variably measured syndrome.

    Use of delirium screening tools in the pediatric ICU: unnecessarily burdensome · 2026 · DOI

  • Pediatric drug trials are scarce, largely retrospective, and show inconsistent benefits with measurable risks.

    Use of delirium screening tools in the pediatric ICU: unnecessarily burdensome · 2026 · DOI

  • Longitudinal assessments of cognition before PSD onset and at follow-up are scarce, leaving the association between PSD and subsequent global and domain-specific PSCI unclear.

    Cognitive Trajectories of Post-Stroke Delirium: Longitudinal Global and Domain-Specific Impairment and Digital Markers · 2026 · DOI

  • Poststroke cognitive impairment (PSCI) and poststroke delirium (PSD) remain underexplored.

    Cognitive Trajectories of Post-Stroke Delirium: Longitudinal Global and Domain-Specific Impairment and Digital Markers · 2026 · DOI

  • Further high-quality randomized controlled trials (RCTs) are warranted to provide robust evidence on the most suitable neuromodulation approaches for different DoC populations and to evaluate their long-term efficacy.

    Comparative Efficacy of Noninvasive Neuromodulation in Patients with Disorders of Consciousness: A Systematic Review and Network Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials · 2026 · DOI

  • Given the marked heterogeneity of DoC and the limitations of the present study, these findings should be interpreted as hypothesis-generating observations rather than universally applicable conclusions.

    Comparative Efficacy of Noninvasive Neuromodulation in Patients with Disorders of Consciousness: A Systematic Review and Network Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials · 2026 · DOI

  • While intermittent fasting (IF) has been shown to enhance mitochondrial function and exert neuroprotective effects, potentially through gut microbiota modulation, its ability to prevent POD and the underlying mechanisms remain unclear.

    Intermittent Fasting Alleviates Anesthesia/Surgery‐Induced Delirium‐Like Behavior in Aged Mice by Remodeling Gut Microbiota · 2026 · DOI

  • Consultation-liaison psychiatry (CLP) services are pivotal for early identification, yet detailed clinical profiles from Indian tertiary-care settings are sparse.

    Phenomenology, Etiology, and Severity of Delirium Among Patients Referred to Consultation-liaison Psychiatry Services in a Tertiary Care Hospital: A Cross-sectional Study · 2026 · DOI

  • It is highly prevalent among hospitalized patients but remains under-recognized, particularly in its hypoactive form.

    Phenomenology, Etiology, and Severity of Delirium Among Patients Referred to Consultation-liaison Psychiatry Services in a Tertiary Care Hospital: A Cross-sectional Study · 2026 · DOI

  • ObjectiveDelirium is an established predictor of adverse outcomes in general ICU populations, but its specific prognostic impact in critically ill patients with acute pancreatitis (AP) remains unclear.

    Impact of delirium on clinical outcomes in critically ill patients with acute pancreatitis: A propensity score-matched study · 2026 · DOI

  • Epigenetic clocks (ECs) measuring epigenetic age (EA) and epigenetic age acceleration (EAA) are biomarkers of biological aging, but their association with intensive care unit (ICU) delirium remains underexplored.

    Exploring the association between epigenetic age and intensive care unit delirium: a pilot feasibility study · 2026 · DOI

  • Delirium is an acute brain dysfunction syndrome with high morbidity and mortality, however its mechanisms remain poorly understood.

    Decoding the delirium proteome: linking clinical vulnerabilities to acute brain dysfunction · 2026 · DOI

  • Delirium is a neuropsychiatric disorder that remains under-recognised and poorly understood in the paediatric population, especially among the very young.

    Neonatal delirium: fact or fiction? A study protocol of a prospective, observational study at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) · 2025 · DOI

  • Although its pathophysiology remains unclear, there could be a correlation between cerebral blood flow (CBF) variations during cardio-pulmonary bypass (CPB) and POD.

    The association between cerebral blood flow variations during on-pump coronary artery bypass grafting surgery and postoperative delirium · 2024 · DOI

  • Reproducibility and interpretability of the analyzing results remain insufficiently studied.

    Expression of microRNA induced by postoperative delirium‐like behavior is associated with long‐term default mode network disruption: Sequencing and a secondary analysis of resting‐state fMRI data · 2024 · DOI

  • As the influence of the drug dose remains unknown, we aimed to compare three AC burden scores in relation to POD, two of which were dose-related.

    Anticholinergic Exposure, Drug Dose and Postoperative Delirium: Comparison of Dose-Related and Non-Dose-Related Anticholinergic Burden Scores in a Retrospective Cohort Study of Older Orthopaedic and Trauma Surgery Patients · 2024 · DOI

  • Delirium is a common complication of hospitalization with poor outcomes, but its underlying pathophysiology is poorly understood.

    Preoperative plasma glial fibrillary acidic protein and postoperative delirium in older adults · 2026 · DOI

  • Further studies are needed to clarify the long-term clinical benefits of acute-phase occupational therapy, - Research should investigate the effects of occupational therapy on QOL in different patient populations, - Studies should examine the optimal timing and duration of occupational therapy in ICU…

    Association Between Acute-Phase Occupational Therapy and Quality of Life at Hospital Discharge and 90 Days After Discharge · 2026 · DOI

  • Investigate the long-term effects of social support and exercise self-efficacy on physical function in ICU survivors, - Examine the mechanisms underlying the relationship between social support and physical function, - Develop interventions to improve exercise self-efficacy and social support in ICU…

    Exercise self-efficacy plays a mediating role between social support and physical function among patients transferred from the intensive care unit · 2026 · DOI

  • The mechanisms underlying the association between social support and physical function among ICU survivors remain unclear - There is a need to identify factors associated with physical function in ICU survivors - There is a lack of understanding of the role of exercise self-efficacy in post-ICU…

    Exercise self-efficacy plays a mediating role between social support and physical function among patients transferred from the intensive care unit · 2026 · DOI

Most-cited papers in Intensive Care Unit Cognitive Disorders

Most recent work

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Open questions raised by papers listed on this page include: (1) Lack of studies using latent profile analysis to examine cognitive performance in older adults after elective surgery (“Latent profiles of day-7 cognitive performance and associated ecological…”, 2026); (2) Prospective studies with standardized POD screening are warranted to validate these findings (“Association between rewarming rate during cardiopulmonary bypass and…”, 2026); (3) Future research should focus on optimizing implementation strategies, addressing special populations, and integrating screening into effective prevention and management pathways to improve patient-centered outcomes (“Delirium screening tools in the pediatric ICU: a useful tool”, 2026); (4) Pediatric drug trials are scarce, largely retrospective, and show inconsistent benefits with measurable risks (“Use of delirium screening tools in the pediatric ICU: unnecessarily burdensome”, 2026); (5) Longitudinal assessments of cognition before PSD onset and at follow-up are scarce, leaving the association between PSD and subsequent global and domain-specific PSCI unclear (“Cognitive Trajectories of Post-Stroke Delirium: Longitudinal Global and…”, 2026). 710 gap statements have been mined from Intensive Care Unit Cognitive Disorders papers in our 7.9M-paper local library, which holds 3,203 papers on the topic; the gaps come from whichever of those papers state one. They are mostly the research gaps the authors state and the papers' abstracts, plus future-work, limitations and challenges passages. The ones listed below are a selection still marked open; each names the study that raised it, with a DOI link where the paper has one, so you can read the original claim in context.

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